FDNY Lieutenant Randy Wiebicke: A Hero Taken From Us Too Soon

On September 11, 2001, Randy Wiebicke, like many New York City Firefighters, was off duty and not assigned to work. Upon hearing of the attacks on the World Trade Center he raced into the fire house a few blocks from ground zero expecting to assist fellow firefighters in rescuing others. Unfortunately he found total devastation and that rescue efforts were not needed. Rather the effort was to recover bodies and clear debris—a process that would last for over a year with literally thousands of volunteers, firefighters and construction workers working round the clock.

Randy remained at “Ground Zero” for three consecutive days after 9/11. He was assigned to ground zero for additional months working to recover remains before he retired from the FDNY in September 2002. We can recall the simple solemnity that was a regular occurrence on the nightly news that first year of our firefighters, police and construction workers pausing to mark the recovery and removal of the remains of yet another victim.

Randy was likely a part of many of those removals the first months after 9/11. Being a witness to the devastation changed many and left a lasting impression upon all who were survivors after the fact. On March 2, 2011 Randy Weibecke died at the age of 54, far too young to leave us, apparently yet another post 9/11 victim.

Randy died from a rare form of blood cancer called “Multiple Myeloma” that usually affects people over the age of seventy. His story was profiled on CNN last year. A 2009 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine offered that a link between exposures to toxic dust at ground zero to multiple myeloma was possible. Randy like hundreds of firefighters and other ground zero workers died of “multiple myeloma” in the years following the attack on the World Trade Center. However, some in the medical community have been reluctant to link those cancers to 9/11.

According to Dr. Jacqueline Moline, the author of the 2009 study:

"We found a predominance of multiple myeloma in younger folks than we would have expected. Doctors monitoring the health of first responders are paying closer attention to blood cancers, since they usually develop in a shorter time frame than other cancers.” Moline continued, “These are the things that all of us in the World Trade Center programs have been focusing on and we're working to see if there are patterns. We know that it looks like people with multiple myeloma might be affected at an earlier age. Seeing folks in their 30s and 40s with myeloma was striking to us."

According to the American Medical Association, multiple myeloma is a rare type of blood cancer that affects blood plasma cells in the bone marrow. It usually strikes people over age 70. Randy Wiebicke was diagnosed with multiple myeloma when he was 52 and died at age 54.

"We are eventually going to find that myeloma is in some fashion involved with the World Trade Center," said Dr. Moline. 

While the medical community may be reluctant to declare the link between exposure at ground zero and cancer, the doctors and nurses who treated Randy seemed to have had little doubt of a connection. According to Randy’s wife Madeline Wiebecke,

“When we were at Sloane and Hackensack, the doctors all would tell us how they have been treating many firefighters and police officers in their 30s and 40s facing blood cancers which are the first to develop after environmental exposure. We knew from the nurses how many patients were being treated and how they spoke about a link. Unfortunately, I know many others who were at ground zero who died from myeloma; like fireman Roy Chelsen who lived in Warwick and died two months ago, his story was very similar to that of Randy. I am afraid that the cancers like the one Randy had is just the leading edge for others who survived.”

While Randy died from multiple myeloma it is not really accurate to portray him as a victim as he really took on life and fought his illness with courage. According to Madeline,

“Randy just really loved life, his family and friends. He was a super hard worker and found happiness in tinkering with his equipment or cutting down trees. Randy was also really big into fishing. He had a boat that he would take out on the Hudson and in the Sound. He went with friends and the kids. During the summer we often went to Lake George, took the boat and we would go out on the Island and camp for two weeks. Randy just loved that time with the kids. Setting the tent up on a platform and camping. Two weeks of fishing, water skiing, reading books and laying in the hammock, being together with the family.”

Randy was a Rockland native, growing up in New City where his family had property and farm animals. According to Madeline,

“Randy grew up here. He had horses, a pond in the back yard and they planted Christmas trees that the family sold. They had pigs and chickens. It was more of a rural experience that Randy really embraced, kind of a country life. We would go visit Saratoga where his family had moved and he just the loved the animals, gardening and wearing a cowboy hat. Randy enjoyed life, he rode motorcycles, had his boat and fishing and was not afraid to get his hands dirty. Above all he loved his family.”

The ups and downs of the past three years were difficult and gave Randy perspective that he shared with his family. Madeline recalled sitting in the hospital one day with Randy and he told her a few valuable lessons he had learned. According to Madeline,

“Randy told me that a big reason he wanted to get out of the hospital was because he wanted to do more to help others. I spoke about it at his funeral.  Randy said that after sitting in the hospital for so long he just wanted to get out because he just wanted to help people, to do more things for others. That’s what he did as a firefighter and that is what he wanted to do. He said that he wanted to simplify his life and to do what he could to help others in need. The other thing he spoke about was forgiveness. Randy could have really been angry at getting cancer and hold a grudge. Instead he knew how life was so short and that holding a grudge was not the answer. In the end he knew forgiveness and he taught us about it.”

Randy was also the keeper of the family traditions,

“He was into keeping the family traditions at Christmas and Easter down to how we decorated and the Easter egg hunts. Now that the kids are older he transferred the Easter egg hunts to his nieces and nephews. It was important for him to carry on the family traditions.”

The one thing that people can do to remember Randy is help in raising money for the Fire Transport Fund. According to Madeline,

“Everyday that I went to visit Randy at Sloane, we were picked up by volunteers who drove us to the hospital and waited sometimes six to eight hours only to drive us home again. We are trying to raise money in Randy’s name, half of it to defray costs for other families facing cancer and the other half so that the Foundation can buy a new van which will have Randy’s name on the side of it."

So if people are touched by Randy’s story please make a donation in his name to the Fire Family Transport Foundation P.O. BOX 157, Fort Tildon, NY 11695.

Nearly ten years after the September 11, 2001, attacks people are dying in far too many numbers from multiple myeloma and other blood cancers. Firefighters, police and volunteer workers like Pearl River’s Billy Harris have been taken away from us way too early and in numbers far too great for it to be a coincidence. Let us recall these heroes, the added victims of September 11 and do what we can to keep their memory and sacrifice alive. One of Randy’s last wishes was to help others he helped many as a firefighter.

Please consider helping to fulfill Randy’s dream to help others and keep his memory alive by donating to the Fire Family Transport Foundation at P.O Box 157, Fort Tilden New York 11695.

Randy Wiebicke a great dad, devoted husband and family man; a different kind of 9/11 hero taken too soon who will never be forgotten.