New Dallas Training Prop Pays Homage to Fallen Firefighter

More than 14 years ago, a Dallas Fire-Rescue engine carrying senior firefighter Milton Williams and Lt. Todd Krodle pulled up to a burning two-story apartment building in west Oak Cliff.

The two divided their crew that mid-August afternoon, each taking a younger firefighter: Krodle climbed to the roof, while Williams went inside.

What began as a plan to first ventilate, then knock down the blaze turned into a rescue. The roof gave way beneath Krodle, trapping the 17-year firefighter in the smoke-choked attic. After several minutes, he was pulled out and taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was 41.

Krodle’s death stayed with Williams.

On Thursday morning, the now-retired firefighter held back his emotions as he watched a crew run a drill on a newly built training prop that prepares them for the kind of scenario that killed his partner.

“For me, this has been a long time coming,” said Williams, now a board member of the Krodle Foundation, the nonprofit that funded the training prop unveiled at a news conference at Hensley Field in Grand Prairie.

Krodle’s death on Aug. 14, 2011, prompted a fresh wave of training in the department and underscored the role of rapid intervention teams, specialized crews that rescue firefighters who become trapped or incapacitated inside a burning building. A review by the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office, which investigates line-of-duty deaths, found that no such team had been formed.

In 2021, Dallas Fire-Rescue began working to establish dedicated rapid intervention teams to respond to every blaze, ensuring that firefighters inside a burning building had a crew prepared to back them up. Chief Justin Ball said the teams create a “physical and psychological safety net,” allowing firefighters to better focus on extinguishing fires.

Teams train for 10 weeks, using donated houses at Hensley Field as their practice ground. The program has trained more than 500 members, according to Deputy Chief Mark Berry, and the department plans to expand it.

The dedicated teams have likely saved lives — the first rescue after a mayday call came on June 29, 2022, just nine days after the program launched, Berry said.

But the training program lacked a prop that re-created the specific circumstances that led to Krodle’s death. Williams said that with about $20,000 from the foundation created in Krodle’s name, the new training prop unveiled at Hensley Field will fill that gap.

The prop resembles the pitched roof of a house, with open sides that expose a cross-section of a mock attic.

Roof cutouts in different spots allow firefighters to practice maneuvers — often leveraging pike poles or ladders — for quickly pulling a trapped colleague to safety.

Assistant Chief Scott Pacot, who oversees the department’s operations, called it the “Krodle drill.”

“His legacy lives on in every member who trains with it,” Pacot said, “and in this way, he continues to serve his DFR family, ensuring we are highly trained, keeping each other safe and operating with the high standards we are held to.”

The Krodle Foundation, founded in 2014, began by awarding scholarships but has since worked to identify and fill gaps in the department’s budget and support active firefighters, William said.

Krodle’s younger brother, Kurt Krodle, spoke before the training demonstration, saying he believed his brother would want others — at Dallas Fire-Rescue and beyond — to learn from his final fire.

“This epitomizes that,” he said.

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