{"id":191733,"date":"2025-04-11T21:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T02:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=191733"},"modified":"2025-04-13T23:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T04:12:32","slug":"injured-volunteer-firefighter-remains-in-the-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/04\/11\/injured-volunteer-firefighter-remains-in-the-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Injured area firefighter remains in hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INDIANAPOLIS — A Convoy volunteer firefighter who suffered serious burns while battling a blaze at a Lare Road home on Wednesday remains in an Indianapolis hospital and is scheduled to have surgery on Monday. However, he appears to be in good spirits.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Convoy firefighter Chaise Dawson will undergo skin graft surgery on Monday. He\u2019s pictured with his wife, Olivia (McKeddie) Dawson. Photo provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Firefighter Chaise Dawson will have skin graft surgery at Eskenazi Hospital. The word came down Thursday, after doctors reviewed and assessed the affected areas and took photos of the third degree burns on his arm, neck, back, ear, and shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring his skin assessment they determined his capillaries under his skin are severely damaged and because of this they are rising to the surface of his skin,\u201d his wife Olivia (McKeddie) Dawson said. “This is not good, and the only way to repair the damaged skin is surgery. He is scheduled to have surgery Monday morning. It will be a skin graft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The burns occurred when a flash fire happened while Dawson was inside the home fighting the blaze with others. It forced him to jump from a first floor window. On Friday, Dawson admitted he was feeling a bit nervous about the surgery and he said he\u2019s ready to return to Van Wert County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so ready to be home with my fire brothers, my wife and kids,\u201d he said. \u201cI had my late daughter Emberlynn, my grandma Dixie Rathert and my biggest reason for wanting to be a firefighter, the late Rod Dawson, looking over me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawson was up and on the move at the hospital on Friday and was able to look out the window and see many of the nearby buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was super bummed out that he couldn\u2019t see Lucas Oil Stadium from the hallway window,\u201d McKeddie quipped. If you know Chaise, you know he loves his sports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Tuesday\u2019s incident, Dawson and his wife said one thing has been certain \u2013 the amount of support, including fundraisers, shown has been incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe support means the world to us,\u201d Dawson said. \u201cI was 10 seconds away from losing everything. I’m grateful for the training I’ve received that allows us to know what to do when things get bad. I just feel very fortunate that I was able to get out when I did.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChaise and I would again like to thank everyone who has taken time to get ahold of us, donations, and other very generous offers,\u201d Olivia said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely keeping our spirits up! You are all amazing. We still have a long road ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawson is expected to remain hospitalized at least until the end of next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Convoy firefighter, Jake Hicks, was injured during the fire as well, but continues to recover and was back at the fire scene on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n

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This is Chaise Dawson’s fire gear after he was forced to jump from a home that was ablaze on Tuesday. Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor INDIANAPOLIS — A Convoy volunteer firefighter who suffered serious burns while battling a blaze at a Lare Road home on Wednesday remains in an Indianapolis hospital and is scheduled to have surgery on Monday. However, he appears to be in good spirits. Firefighter Chaise Dawson will have skin graft surgery at Eskenazi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 11:23:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191733"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191820,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191733\/revisions\/191820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}