Bloomburg chief severely injured in line of duty

Submitted by Casscounty1 on
By Raegan Rice
Reporter
 
Bloomburg fire chief Dakota Huddleston was injured in an early morning structure fire on Monday, April 28. 
Huddleston was air-lifted to LSUS with a broken pelvis, broken tibula and fibula, fractured vertebrae, and internal injuries and was in stable condition as of Monday night.
Huddleston’s wife, Kirbi, said that she received the call around 6:50 a.m.
“They told me it was a structure fire, and he was outside the wall, not inside the building. The wall collapsed on him about waist down.”
Bloomburg VFD provides mutual aid and the incident occurred in Doddridge, Arkansas.
Station Chief of Miller County Station #7 Michael Cornett said the fire was in about a 40 x 40 cinderblock construction building in the 3900 block of Miller County Road 5. The call came in to him at 6:09 a.m. with Miller County Station 7, Miller County Station 8, Bloomburg VFD, and Caddo Parrish 8 units responding.
“When we got there it was a fully involved structure fire,” Cornett said. “They started the fire attack, and Dakota found a walk-in door that allowed him access to the fire inside. He took about two steps back and before the wall collapsed on him.”
Cornett said that the structure had concrete between the cinderblocks making up the door frames and windows of the structure, which made the wall space unstable.
Kirbi also said that her husband was more alert Monday evening, talking about the incident and tolerating the pain a bit better. 
“The fire department has been overwhelmingly kind,” Kirbi said. “They got me a room right next door to the hospital and they will keep two men here at all times until he goes home.”
Huddleston is expected to have surgery on his pelvis after healing occurs on his internal injuries. 
“It’s one of those deals that anytime we go out, you know anything can happen, things you don’t have control over,” Cornett said of being a fire fighter. “It just happened to be (Dakota) yesterday. It’s always in the back of your mind.”
Cornett also said that in his 20 years of being a firefighter he can only remember two other incidents involving injuries.
“Thankfully, it hasn’t been more than that,” said Cornett. “It’s just when it does happen, it seems to be pretty bad.”
 
 
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