International Association of Fire Fighters Condemns

Use of Twin Towers in Florida Political Billboard
 

View CNN Story of Billboard Here

Washington, DC – International Association of Fire Fighters General President Harold A. Schaitberger issued this statement today on the political billboards in the Orlando region that bear the image of the Twin Towers:

“The Florida billboards are offensive.

“The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks killed 343 of our FDNY members and thousands of innocent civilians.

“There’s a big difference between honoring and remembering the fallen – fire fighters and civilians – and shamelessly plastering the image of the burning Twin Towers on a purely political billboard with an offensive statement currying favor for or against a political party. It is offensive to those who died on 9/11. It’s offensive to their families. It’s offensive to those of us in the fire service.

“Debilitating illnesses have stricken fire fighters and others among the 40,000 people – police, building trades, sanitation workers, victims, witnesses and others – who inhaled Ground Zero’s toxic soup of 400 chemicals. Thousands of New York fire fighters have suffered enormously and labor just to breathe. They are living victims who battle violent symptoms of respiratory illness each day.

“A study in 2006 found that more than 12,000 of our members in the International Association of Fire Fighters who work in New York lost 12 years’ worth of lung function in a year following the attacks.

“The individual who designed and paid for these billboards deserves scorn. The company that agreed to run them should be ashamed.

“The billboards should be taken down immediately.”

The International Association of Fire Fighters, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents more than 281,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics who protect 80 percent of the nation’s population. More information is available at www.iaff.org.

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