There’s been a huge increase in the number of disability retirements among firefighters since 9/11, The Post has learned.
The FDNY is compiling the eye-opening hard data in a report for the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The numbers explain the drastic increase in the amount of money the city has doled out in pensions since the catastrophe.
The report, a draft of which dated Aug. 25, 2010, was obtained by The Post, compares the rate of “accidental disability retirements” among firefighters during the seven years prior to the World Trade Center attacks and the seven years following.
In the prior seven years, 3,261 firefighters retired. Nearly half, or 1,571, left under the condition of accidental disability, which refers to on-the-job injuries and illnesses.
In the seven years after 9/11, the FDNY had 4,502 retirements — 66 percent of which, or 2,970, were classified as accidental disability.
Of that 66 percent, 1,402 were associated with Sept. 11 ailments.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long said the wording of the draft has been changed, but he did not provide further details.