Fort Worth firefighters rescued a homeless man suffering from hypothermia during Sunday morning’s dangerous winter storm, carrying him up a frozen hillside before he began seizing from the cold.
Members of the Fort Worth Fire Department’s HOPE team — Home Outreach Prevention Education — responded to a large encampment off East 9th Street on the city’s east side. The team had visited on Saturday night, offering transportation to a shelter, but some residents initially refused to leave.
By Sunday morning, everyone was ready to go. The overnight precipitation had frozen their shoes solid, leaving firefighters to carry four people up the steep incline to reach the transport bus.
One man, visibly exhausted and emotionally distressed from overnight cold exposure, couldn’t walk. Firefighters began carrying him uphill when he suddenly seized from hypothermia halfway to safety.
The team rushed him to their transport van for emergency care. An ambulance later took him to a local hospital. His current medical condition remains unknown. The remaining residents were successfully transported to a warming shelter.
“Every resident of this city is a priority and the Fort Worth Fire Department wants to ensure you that we are doing everything we can during this winter weather storm to help whomever we can. This is what we do in the City of Fort Worth: we help one another no matter what,” the Fort Worth Fire Department posted on Facebook.