A New York fire department Battalion Chief died of 9/11-related cancer. Famed for walking through burning buildings with a cigar in his mouth instead of an air mask, he was 76 when he died due to lung cancer.

Robert M.’s son, a retired firefighter himself, Robert M. Jr, told the Daily News, “My dad never stopped thinking about the guys in the department. When were at the hospital, he was talking in his sleep. Come on boys! We gotta put the fire out.”

Robert began his firefighting career in Inwood at Ladder Company 45. It was thereafter that he rose up the ranks, performing heroic acts one by one. In 1980, he was promoted to lieutenant at the Ladder Co. 113 in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. A year after, he moved to nearby Ladder Co. 147. After becoming a battalion chief in 1999, he retired nine years later.

The Staten Island native fought the 9/11-related cancer long and hard. According to his son, he fought cancer for two years in the same way he fought his battles as an Air Force radar and weapons technician during the Vietnam War.

“He came out of radiation treatment and was running up and down a basketball court, still coaching at 74,” he son says. “He was living for his children and grandchildren.”

When the planes crashed into the Twin Towers, Robert grabbed his gear and reportedly jumped a ferry headed downtown. He served as a Battalion Chief for the department for 39 years. During the 9/11 attacks, Robert grieved the death of his brother, Richard, 55, who was on the 86^th floor of 2 World Trade Center, and perished in the attacks. But during the next 3 ½ months, Robert put aside his grief. He led the firefighters to uncover bodies of the dead.

His son, who also suffers from 9/11-related illnesses told the Daily News that “[t]hey assigned him a section of the pile.” But as they sifted through piles and devastation, he says that “Guys would come up to me and say, ‘Mucc, I’m so glad your dad’s working tonight. Nothing rattles him’.”

Robert is survived by two other children, Michael, 51, and Jacqueline, 48. Although his wife, Linda, passed away in 2009, he is also survived by sister Mary, 71; daughter-in-law, Christine, 46, and grandchildren, William, 15, and Sabrina, 18.

According to John Feal, the president of 9/11 victims’ advocacy group the Feal Good Foundation, “Battalion Chief Robert M… fought the devil (cancer) like the warrior he was!” “Collectively the 9/11 community mourns with our Brothers & Sisters in the FDNY.”

His son asks that we keep 9/11 emergency workers who suffer from 9/11-related cancer or other health complications in our thoughts. He says, “For so many of us, everything stopped or changed that day. You move on with your life but for us, you’re stuck in 9/11.”

Despite his 9/11-related cancer illness, his son says that his father would not hesitate to dive back into another disaster again.

“He loved taking care of the people of the city. He loved being a fireman. He wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

If you or someone you love lived or worked below Canal Street in the months after the World Trade Center attacks and is suffering from 9/11-related cancer or other conditions, you may be eligible for monetary compensation.