FDNY Deputy Chief James Riches: A Father's 6-Month Search at Ground Zero and Legacy of 9/11 Advocacy

More than 2,900 individuals lost their lives during the September 11 attacks.

New Delhi:

A retired New York Fire Department deputy chief, whose firefighter son perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks and who dedicated decades to advocating for ill first responders, has passed away from a 9/11-related illness.

James "Jim" Riches died on Thanksgiving Day at 74 years old, nearly 24 years after his tireless efforts at Ground Zero searching for his eldest son, Firefighter James Riches Jr. His passing adds him to the more than 400 FDNY members who have succumbed to illnesses connected to toxic exposure following the World Trade Center collapse, according to CNN reporting.

When the second tower fell on the morning of September 11, 2001, Riches immediately rushed to lower Manhattan. His son, Jimmy Jr, assigned to Ladder 114 in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, had responded with Engine Company 4. He was last seen carrying an injured woman from the North Tower's lobby. Jimmy Jr became one of 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the attacks.

In subsequent months, Riches returned daily to the World Trade Center ruins, sifting through debris contaminated with toxic dust, smoke, and gases that covered lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn after the collapse, as documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"He was there every day to find his son," recalled Richard Brower, a retired FDNY lieutenant and former Uniformed Fire Officers Association president.

The search concluded in March 2002 when Jimmy Jr's crushed helmet, bearing the Ladder 114 number, was discovered at the North Tower site. His body was found nearby. Upon his son's recovery, Riches summoned his other sons to Ground Zero, and together, they carried Jimmy Jr from the pit where the North Tower once stood.

More than 2,900 people perished on September 11.

Even after locating his son, Riches continued working at the site until recovery operations ended in May 2002. His health deteriorated in 2005, resulting in hospitalization for acute respiratory distress syndrome and a 16-day coma.

"They told my family I'd be dead in five hours, get everybody together. And I pulled out of it, then I had, like, stroke-like symptoms. I had to learn how to walk and talk and do everything all over again. I'm alive, thank God," Riches shared with CNN in 2014.

His lung capacity never fully recovered.

Riches joined the FDNY in 1977 and retired in 2007 as deputy chief, the highest position attainable without city appointment.

He was laid to rest on December 1 following a funeral at St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, attended by crowds lining the streets as bagpipes marked a full FDNY farewell.