VIDEO: Caleb Halvorson’s dad died when he was just 9 years old. And when a garage collapsed on the Fort Worth firefighter battling a house fire on September 3rd, his mom feared it was happening again: Halvorson leaving behind a son, too. “All you can think is like, God please, please don’t let him die,” said Alisha Cook. Halvorson, 26, suffered second and third-degree burns to his back, legs, hands, and face when he was trapped under heavy roof debris. The crush of the burning timber also tore three out of the four ligaments in his left knee.
“He’s told me he thought he was going to die,” said his wife, Haley Halvorson. “He had accepted it and that was it for him. He never lost consciousness. He was awake for all of it. So he can recall the fire. He can recall what it felt like to be on fire.” Halvorson has endured multiple surgeries and will likely face many more in the burn unit at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. His mom says it has been excruciating for him and excruciating to watch. “Watching my son suffer, watching him cry,” Alisha Cook said when asked about the hardest part of the last 26 days.
