Thomas del Pino spent 18 years as a firefighter with Ladder Co. 85 in Staten Island, riding into the smoke on Sept. 11, 2001, aboard a truck carrying a 95-foot ladder that was among the first sent to the World Trade Center. He survived the collapse of the second tower, searched the pile for survivors and remains, and lived another 24 years. On Sept. 14, 2025, he died at 66 in Milford, Pennsylvania, after a rare brain cancer tied to his time at Ground Zero spread through his body and shut down his liver.
Del Pino was diagnosed with a diffuse midbrain glioblastoma in July 2025, according to the New York Post, which first reported his story. The tumor is a rare and aggressive malignancy more commonly detected in children, and the disease put him among more than 57,044 first responders diagnosed with a Sept. 11-linked cancer, per the same report. He underwent radiation five days a week for six weeks, and about a month after treatment ended, he developed liver failure.
His son, NYPD Detective Daniel del Pino, 38, told the Post his father carried survivor’s guilt for years after making it out of the towers alive. The elder del Pino had served as a liaison to a family whose firefighter father died in the attacks, and it fell to him to tell that family’s children their dad was not coming home. He was grateful simply to have survived Sept. 11, according to the account his son gave the paper, even as that day never fully let go of him.
A Final Sept. 11 Before the Coma
Three days before his death, Del Pino attended two Sept. 11 memorials near his home in Milford, using a wheelchair to get there. He wanted people to remember that day, the Post reported, and two days after those ceremonies, he slipped into a coma. He died on Sept. 14, 2025…