FDNY EMT Deputy Chief David Burke spent eight months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack inhaling the toxic dust from the World Trade Center rubble as he aided workers in rescue and recovery efforts.

In October 2024, the West Babylon resident found out the devastating effects of that work when he was diagnosed with liver cancer that spread to his colon and then his bones. He died nine months later at age 61.

Now, Babylon Town will honor Burke and other residents who have died from 9/11-related illnesses with a memorial that will be built between Overlook and Cedar beaches.

“This is amazing,” Burke’s wife of 36 years, Rosemarie, 60, said of the memorial. “These people put themselves in there. They put their lives at risk, not knowing it.”

The number of people who have died from

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