9/11 first responder, advocate Luis Alvarez dies at 53

Luis Alvarez
(Image credit: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Luis Alvarez, a retired New York Police Department bomb squad detective who fought for ailing 9/11 first responders before Congress, died on Saturday at a hospice in New York. He was 53.

Earlier in June, Alvarez, who developed cancer years after working at Ground Zero, delivered what The Washington Post called a "heartbreaking plea to Congress" to extend the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, which provides financial assistance to first responders who developed illnesses.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.