{"id":43888,"date":"2025-07-06T17:27:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T17:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43888\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T17:27:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T17:27:29","slug":"texas-firefighter-remembered-after-drowning-death-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43888\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas firefighter remembered after drowning death \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family and friends of fallen Dallas firefighter Juan Omar Chaidez said their final goodbyes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Chaidez died in June after going missing while kayaking on Lake Lavon with his dog<\/a>. NBC 5 learned that while Chaidez had fastened a life vest on his beloved dog, AJ, he was not wearing one himself when their kayak capsized.<\/p>\n

The dog was rescued and the kayak was recovered, but a two-day search turned up no sign of Chaidez. His body was recovered on June 22 after it resurfaced at Lake Lavon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Eight<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tJeff Irwin, NBCDFW.com<\/p>\n

\t\t\tJeff Irwin, NBCDFW.com<\/p>\n

Eight agencies are searching near Lake Lavon’s Bratonia Park for the kayaker reported missing Saturday. <\/p>\n

Members of Dallas Fire-Rescue\u2019s Station 43 gathered at Lake Lavon the morning Chaidez was found to remember him with love and laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved his job. He loved his mom. He loved his mom very much,\u201d said friend Wes Southard. \u201cHe’ll be missed a lot for a long time. We’ll always be thinking of him, thinking of his mom, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Southern California native had been a member of Dallas Fire-Rescue for more than six years, according to DFR.<\/p>\n

Dallas Fire-Rescue Department statement<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is with deep sadness that, after two days of search efforts using every possible resource, the body of Dallas Fire-Rescue member Juan Omar Chaidez has been recovered from Lavon Lake. Chaidez\u2019s body surfaced this morning just before 7 a.m. near Bratonia Park, where the search had taken place. Officer Chaidez was a valued member of the department and selflessly served the residents of the City of Dallas for over 6 years. Chaidez\u2019s crew was able to pay their respects by escorting his body to the Collin County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office. The department is currently focusing its attention on Officer Chaidez\u2019s family, as well as the DFR family, through the provision of any and all resources available to help process this tragedy. DFR would like to extend its profound thanks to the multiple agencies who worked tirelessly alongside us to help find Officer Chaidez, including Wylie Fire Rescue, Lucas Fire Department, Princeton Fire Department, Collin County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Texas Department of Public Safety. Each entity went above and beyond during the search, and we are deeply grateful for their support. Please keep us in your thoughts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dallas Police Department statement<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dallas Police Department extends its deepest thoughts and prayers to Dallas Firefighter Juan Omar Chaidez, his family, and the entire Dallas Fire-Rescue Department. We stand with our brothers and sisters in red during this difficult time.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family and friends of fallen Dallas firefighter Juan Omar Chaidez said their final goodbyes on Tuesday. Chaidez died…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7290,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-43888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-county","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114807468527061737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}