Just months after injured Fort Worth firefighter Caleb Halvorson’s workers’ compensation battle sparked outrage and questions about how North Texas cities treat first responders, the City of Fort Worth addressed concerns at a council meeting.
Halvorson was part of a crew responding to a two-alarm house fire on the city’s historic Southside last September, when the home’s garage collapsed around him, leaving him crushed beneath debris and his body covered in burns. Halvorson is home now, recovering, still in therapy, and facing additional surgeries. But his case drew widespread attention after his family took to social media, alleging that workers’ compensation had denied and delayed parts of his care. He said that while he’s getting the care he needs now, it’s been a “horrible, agonizing” process.
After Halvorson’s story became public, more than two dozen first responders came forward with similar accounts. An I-Team investigation found those stories are not isolated, raising questions about a system many describe as slow and adversarial…