As temperatures dropped during the winter freeze, Fort Worth firefighters shifted their focus from fire emergencies to survival checks, returning repeatedly to homeless encampments across the city to help people in life-threatening cold. Firefighter Louis Pantoja and his partner spent hours check ing tents, often revisiting sites every few hours as conditions worsened. “We medically assess them. We try to see if they’re dehydrated,” Pantoja said. Many people were found exhausted, soaked and struggling to stay awake as their bodies lost the ability to regulate temperature. Some had only thin tents and small fires for warmth. Others had no shoes, exposing their feet to ice and frozen ground. “It started 2 a.m. on Saturday. We came out, and we had two people that we took to the shelter that night. It was the younger ones that experiencing their first winter out here,” Pantoja said. “Their shoes were frozen solid.” One of the most severe cases involved an older man showing signs of advanced hypothermia. Pantoja said the man had stopped shivering and began seizing before firefighters could stabilize him. “He could not shiver anymore,” he said. “He started seizing on us, and we got him as fast as we could to the truck and warmed him up. At that point, he seized multiple times, and we stabilized him.” Despite long hours and challenging conditions, Pantoja said crews never hesitated. “They are our friends too,” he said. “They depend on us to come out, check on them, and to come out here and look after them in this cold weather. It’s important to make sure we go out throughout the whole city.” Fort Worth fire officials said outreach efforts will continue in the days following the storm. “The best thing to do is just try to seek shelter, but you can’t force them,” Pantoja said. ...read more read less