Forest Hills honors 9/11 hero

The ceremony was in his honor, but he was only able to smile at the attendees from a color photograph printed on his parents’ white T-shirts.
He is Richard Allen Pearlman, a member of The Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps (FHVAC) who helped pull victims out of the rubble of the World Trade Center on 9/11 before perishing himself at the age of 18.
To honor this Howard Beach resident, every year on September 11, FHVAC holds a service in his memory in front of its headquarters, at 92-29 Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills.
During this year’s ceremony, which fell on a chilly Thursday, Pearlman’s parents, Dorie and Barry, were the honored guests. Their faces were solemn throughout the event, even when it was announced that a wall inside the organization’s headquarters will be dedicated to their son.
“People tend to forget, but not Forest Hills,” said Dorie. She explained that during the service she felt particularly proud of her son, who served in the FHVAC as a dispatcher.
“For four years, no matter what the weather, he would ride two buses from Howard Beach to volunteer at the FHVAC headquarters,” said Alan Wolfe, FHVAC president. “His life passion was to learn as much as he could in order to help people.”
And this is exactly what Pearlman did on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was working at a lawyer’s office and that morning he was bringing documents to One Police Plaza when the first plane hit the World Trade Center Tower.
Pearlman knew his emergency medical training could be put to use, so, instead of returning to the law office, he went with the officers to the site. But as soon as he entered the building, it collapsed.
“Mr. and Mrs. Pearlman, we will always remember Richard,” said Councilmember Melinda Katz during the ceremony. “9/11 is not just an expression. It’s a date in time that happened to us,” she added, turning to the rest of the audience.
The wall dedicated to Pearlman in FHVAC’s headquarters will be covered with plaques, articles about him and photos. “We’ll put up photos of him helping a victim, photos that appeared in Newsweek magazine,” said Wolfe.
A few years ago, the Myrtle Avenue block where FHVAC’s headquarters are located was named after Pearlman.