{"id":552793,"date":"2026-01-30T01:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552793\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T01:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:07:11","slug":"injured-fort-worth-firefighter-speaks-out-after-suspects-arson-charged-dropped-by-grand-jury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552793\/","title":{"rendered":"Injured Fort Worth firefighter speaks out after suspect&#8217;s arson charged dropped by grand jury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Worth firefighter Caleb Halvorson, who was critically burned while responding to a house fire in Fort Worth&#8217;s historic Southside last September, shared a powerful response following a Tarrant County grand jury&#8217;s decision not to charge the suspect in that fire with arson.<\/p>\n<p>Last October, the Fort Worth Fire Department said the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/fort-worth-house-fire-sept-3\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-absolute=\"true\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" target=\"_blank\">September fire<\/a>\u00a0that badly wounded Halvorson and injured Lt. Troy Gallagher\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/fire-that-seriously-injured-fort-worth-firefighter-was-arson-officials-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-absolute=\"true\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">was arson and that an arrest had<\/a> been made. Fort Worth FD said Shawndreika Thomas, 34, intentionally set the fire and faced charges for arson and two counts of bodily injury.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p>Grand jury declines to indict on arson charge<\/p>\n<p>The Tarrant County District Attorney&#8217;s Office confirmed the grand jury declined to indict Thomas on an arson charge. Thomas was indicted for burglary of a habitation and could face 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.  <\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/snapshot-43.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"snapshot-43.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                Halvorson family<\/p>\n<p>Halvorson spent more than a month at Parkland Hospital, including time in the ICU, while his newborn son was in the NICU.<\/p>\n<p>After being able to return home, Halvorson has continued his rehabilitation and spent time with his wife and son. Upon hearing the grand jury&#8217;s decision, he shared a statement with CBS News Texas reporter Ginger Allen.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I know she didn&#8217;t start the fire with the intent of it collapsing on me, but I do think if she&#8217;s not getting charged with arson then there really isn&#8217;t any justice for me and my family in the case.<br \/>She took a lot from my family that she doesn&#8217;t realize.<br \/>Everything from taking care of my son to my body never being the same again.  <br \/>\tI understand that nothing will ultimately change my circumstances and I signed up and took a vow for a career knowing the worst could happen. \u00a0<br \/>I take everything one day at a time and I will eventually be healed enough to get back on the truck and do what I love. This is now just part of my testimony in life and I know good will come from this.&#8221; \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Fort Worth firefighter to get workers&#8217; comp after outrage over denied care<\/p>\n<p>Halvorson has also been involved in another struggle regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/severely-burned-fort-worth-firefighter-workers-comp-denied-care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-absolute=\"true\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">workers&#8217; compensation after initially being denied care for his injuries<\/a>. The City of Fort Worth said it has since assigned a case manager to ensure Halvorson receives the care he needs without unnecessary delays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth firefighter Caleb Halvorson, who was critically burned while responding to a house fire in Fort Worth&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":528734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,8339,7371,10173,7372,7375,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-552793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arson","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fort-worth-fire-department","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-tarrant-county","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115981375478535912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552793","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=552793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}