A federal fund set up to compensate people sickened by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack made its first awards on Tuesday, to 15 first responders.

The recipients’ names were not released, but 14 are firefighters and one is a correction officer who responded to the disaster early on, mainly on the first day, said Sheila Birnbaum, the special master of the $2.8 billion victim compensation fund.

Most of them had respiratory illnesses and none of them had cancer, she said. Their awards, which are tax-free, ranged from $10,000 to $1.5 million. But they are receiving only 10 percent at first because of uncertainty about how many people will ultimately apply for the benefits, which are available to first responders, volunteers, workers and residents who were in Lower Manhattan in the months after the attack. Ms. Birnbaum could not provide the total dollar amount awarded in this round.

The fund expires in October 2016. With thousands of people potentially eligible, it could in theory, according to an actuarial calculation, have to pay $8.5 billion, far more than it can afford.