There is some truth to it, Nutty...but there's also a lot of BS in some media accounts.   The Victim Compensation Fund has paid more than $1 billion to 2,680 people who were injured (mostly for respiratory illness), including $626 million to more than 1,300 injured firefighters. (more here) There was apparently a deadline for claims under that program, which has passed (the end of 2003, maybe), and there is legislation under consideration to allow people who didn't make claims earlier to file now.