After 10 Years, FHVAC Still Remembers A Fallen Brother

For Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps Captain Dave Konig, Sept. 11 was a day that brought about intense change.

The organization that he dedicated his life to, lost its only working ambulance that day, as well as one of his Emergency Medical volunteers, Richard Perlman.

But beyond that, he said, the terror attacks in Lower Manhattan forced his group, and hundreds like it across the city, to change the way they operated.

“The volunteers were individual organizations, and that’s how they operated,” Konig said. “They were within community boundaries, and they were only concerned with their communities. After the attacks, we saw that there were things beyond just our community, there are ways we can better organize and utilize ourselves in the case of such a disaster.”

Konig said that the terror attacks led to a reinvigorated interest in service across the community, with many residents coming forward to volunteer with the ambulance corps. While most tried briefly and decided not to continue, the will to give back never really went away.

“Those that came in during that time period, probably a greater number came in, tried it out and went to other groups like the auxiliary police instead,” he said. “It's something that continues to happen, that's really what volunteer organizations are for.”