First responders tell of 9/11, aftermath at Fresh Kills landfill

In documentary, first responders tell of 9/11, aftermath at Fresh Kills landfill
Published: Friday, August 05, 2011
ISLANDIA, N.Y. — Anthony Yacapino was sitting at home, watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon in 2004 when he felt the first signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. “My heart felt like it was leaping out of my chest. I thought I was dying. It was seriously scary,” he recalls.

The retired New York City police detective, like thousands of colleagues, worked for months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks dealing with the aftermath. He interviewed relatives of the dead at a bereavement center and later searched for human remains and victims’ belongings at the former Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.

After that first scare, Yacapino remained silent for months, trying to avoid letting on to his superiors that he was ailing years after working near Ground Zero. Then he had to go to court one day in lower Manhattan, not far from the World Trade Center site, and he went into a panic attack.
That’s when he finally decided to seek medical help, enlisting in a program run by Stony Brook University on New York’s Long Island. “The best move I ever made,” he admits.
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First responders tell of 9/11, aftermath at Fresh Kills landfill