May 28 (UPI) -- Former New York firefighter Ray Pfeifer, who lobbied to fund healthcare for fellow 9/11 first responders while battling terminal cancer, died Sunday. He was 59.
Pfeifer spent eight months combing through rubble at the World Trade Center "looking for friends" following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He succumbed to cancer linked to the toxic plume that hung over Ground Zero in the days after the attack on New York City.