CLEBURNE, Texas — At every major fire in Johnson County, you’ll find Randal Goodwin. His truck is always one of the most crucial.
In punishing heat and worsening drought, wildfires sparking nearly daily, and Goodwin is the chief of the Emergency Support Service keeping firefighters going through long days.
“Firefighters, volunteers and paid, they’ll run themselves to death,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin started out, though, as a firefighter himself. In 1988, he was rescuing two people from a fire with downed lines when he was severely-injured.
“I’m running parallel to the wire,” Goodwin told WFAA. “It arcs out and jumps 20 feet and strikes me in the right eye.”
Goodwin lost both legs, his heart stopped three times, he had burns on 87% of his body and he was blinded in one eye.
“Spent the first few weeks, ‘he’s gonna live, oh he’s gonna die. He’s gonna live, he’s gonna die’,” Goodwin said. “In one moment, your dream evaporates. For about a year or so, I was a pretty sour individual,” he said.
Goodwin did more than a year of rehab working with Parkland Health’s top-rate burn unit. But he never lost his desire to serve.
“I was like, ‘I have no feet and I’m blind’, and then I realized that there’s somebody worse off than me,” Goodwin said. “Once you realize that, and it puts you in proper perspective in life.”
In 1991, Goodwin started Emergency Support Services, sending and receiving letters about what services and resources firefighters needed most.
With a crew of several other volunteers, they go to every major fire in the county providing needed hydration, snacks, hand washing, towels and even cooling vests. They have also started mental health services.
Recently, he helped train Bosque County on how to create a similar program.
“Heroes need heroes, right? And a guy like Randal is a hero’s hero,” Jamie Moore, Johnson County’s Emergency Management Director said.
Moore said that for firefighters in the heat, the services aren’t just helpful, they’re critical.
“It’s amazing and remarkable that we have people that are willing to volunteer to do that type of work,” Moore said. “He’s a guy that shows up not just with water and Gatorade and things to help the firefighters rehab. He shows up with a heart of gold.”
To stay in service, they get some county help, but they remain always in need of volunteers and donations.
“No one should die because there wasn’t a drink of water. No one should die because they didn’t have a spot to cool off,” Goodwin said. “We say, ‘You fuel your firetrucks. You need to fuel your firefighters’.”
A tragic injury that ended a dream has also fueled a new purpose and passion.
“It’s either ‘Great, I’m alive’ or ‘Great! I’m alive,” Goodwin said. “That’s how I live my life.”
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