More than a month after a devastating fire left him severely burned, Texas firefighter Caleb Halvorson was finally discharged from the hospital. Just four days later, his infant son, Hudson—who had spent 112 days in the NICU after being born at just 27 weeks—was able to come home, too.
“I thought when I saw him again, I was just gonna break down,” Caleb, 26, said of the emotional reunion. “But I couldn’t stop smiling. We knew it was gonna come with a bunch of challenges with my injury, but it was the win we needed.”
Caleb and his wife Hayley, 27, were expecting Hudson to arrive on September 14, but their first child was born almost two months early, weighing just 1 lb., 9 oz. “I had a really bad placenta,” Hayley explained. “It was really small and not formed correctly. At my 27-week checkup, Hudson had really limited blood flow. His heart rate kept dropping. There was no amniotic fluid, so they admitted me right then and there.”
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A Firefighter’s Near-Fatal Accident
On September 3, while Hudson was still in the NICU, Caleb was called to fight a residential fire. As he sprayed down the flames, the garage suddenly collapsed, trapping him under heavy debris for nearly two minutes.
“I didn’t feel like I was gonna die because I couldn’t breathe,” he recalled. “It was because I was so hot. The beam across my chest and neck forced me to face the fire, and I couldn’t move at all.”
Rescuers struggled to free him. “I felt my officer trying to lift the beam—it didn’t move an inch,” Caleb said. “Right then I thought, ‘Okay, is this it? This is how I go?’”
When they finally pulled him out, his mask and helmet were gone. “I was screaming, ‘Get me outta here! Please, I’m burning!’” he remembered. “They tried to stand me up, and I couldn’t. I kept saying, ‘My leg is broken.’”
As he was dragged to safety before being airlifted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Caleb pleaded with rescuers to contact his wife. “I was like, ‘I have a kid in the NICU. Please don’t let me die. Call my wife. Tell her I’m out.’”
Hayley, on her way to visit Hudson, got the call about her husband’s accident. “I knew if they were taking him to Parkland, it was bad,” she said.
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Recovery and Resilience
At the hospital, Caleb was heavily sedated. “They kept asking, ‘Where’s your pain?’ and I said, ‘My butt is on fire. My back is on fire,’” he recalled. Doctors later told him that first responders had popped his shoulder and knee back into place on the scene.
Treatment in the burn unit was grueling. “There’s a lot of scraping and scrubbing in the burn tank,” he said. “I’d wake up knowing they were going to take me there again. I’d scream and cry. But I’m lucky and blessed to be alive and not paralyzed. It could’ve been so much worse.”
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While Caleb fought to recover, Hayley—also a nursing student—made daily trips between the two hospitals, 40 miles apart. “It was hard because I felt guilty when I was with Caleb and not Hudson,” she said. “And then when I was with Hudson, I felt guilty not being with Caleb.”
After 34 days in the burn unit, Caleb was released on October 6. Four days later, Hayley brought Hudson home. “That was the big thing we were both looking forward to this whole time,” Caleb said.
Gratitude and Looking Ahead
Caleb still faces at least three more surgeries but is determined to return to firefighting once he fully recovers. He calls the experience a “blessing in disguise.”
“I’ll be able to see Hudson grow, take his first steps, and not miss anything,” he said.
The Halvorsons have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from friends, relatives, and the firefighting community across the country. An online fundraiser through Help a Hero has raised nearly $170,000 for their recovery.
“It’s a huge blessing,” Caleb said. “We’re able to get the care we need, and we want to give back to others after this.”
Now, the couple is looking forward to celebrating their first holiday season as parents. “That’s what I keep saying,” Hayley added. “I just wanna get to Christmas. Hopefully by then he’ll have his knee surgery, and we can just relax with our baby.”
