DELTONA, Fla. – After a dangerous situation for his team earlier this week, Deltona Fire Chief Bill Snyder said he is relieved his firefighters and Volusia deputies are heading into the holidays alive.
On Wednesday, the two teams worked together to remove a man from his house, which he set on fire after leading deputies on a chase and then shooting at first responders.
“It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime type of situation for us,” Snyder said. “We just went up and thanked them for what they did. It was definitely an out-of-the-ordinary, out-of-the-box type of thing from what we normally do.”
Volusia Investigators said Dempsey Hadley, 56, was reported for stealing cigarettes from a nearby gas station Wednesday morning, leading deputies on a chase to his house.
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Investigators said that upon arrival, Hadley shot at the deputies, with a bullet grazing one deputy’s face and starting a standoff.
They said Hadley ran and started lighting fires on his house and car.
“We thought we had a good idea of where the suspect was in working with the sheriff’s department, but at the same time, he could have moved at any point, and you never know what could happen from there,” said the chief.
Snyder said that on arrival, it became a unified effort — a long, playful rivalry between law enforcement and firefighters ceasing to exist in that moment.
“We were able to set up behind that armored vehicle and behind the ballistic shields,” said Snyder. “We just tried to make sure that we stayed in contact with the sheriff’s office so that if the suspect did move in our direction at all, we could take cover.”
Investigators said that Hadley refused to come out of the home and was screaming he would keep fighting.
Video from the sheriff’s office showed flames and smoke billowing out a door to a second-floor balcony with Hadley standing on it. Firefighters worked to put out the blaze as the sheriff’s office SWAT team knocked the balcony down, with Hadley crashing down with it and put in cuffs.
Snyder said he was relieved when it was over. He said now, it’s just another type of situation they know they can handle.
“Try to think of all of the situations and work our best to train our people to be ready for just about anything that could happen,” he said.
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