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FORT WORTH — From his bunk in the Salvation Army homeless shelter, Greg LaRue can hear the wailing sirens of fire trucks as they roar down East Lancaster Drive.
For most homeless people, it is background noise. Another fire. Another person sick. Another person injured.But to LaRue, the sound is a stabbing reminder of the life he had, the career he cherished and the challenges he must overcome.For 17 years, LaRue was a proud Fort Worth firefighter. Among the ranks known as the city’s bravest, a man who ran into burning buildings, aided wreck victims and pulled people from floodwaters.He often rode an engine along East Lancaster, paying little attention to homeless people along the away."I had my dream job," he said.But his life unraveled about two years ago. Drug addiction, fueled in part by marital problems, took his home, his car and his career. Finally, he says, it took his dignity.Instead of a fire station house, he found himself waiting in line at shelters, living off free meals, without a penny to his name. He lived with the homeless people he once ignored.And, like many of them, he is fighting to recover. Enrolled in a Salvation Army transitional housing program, he has been clean and sober for a year and is getting treatment.Last week, he found a job.It is a journey that has opened his eyes to the reality of the city’s homeless community, he says."I used to think those homeless people I passed belonged to a different society," LaRue said. "There was the society I lived in, and there was the society they lived in."It’s no longer me and them," he said. "There’s just us."The dream jobLaRue stands out among the city’s homeless for reasons other than his past profession.Standing 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 300 pounds with a cleanly shaved head, he looks more like an NFL lineman than a homeless person. The homeless are often gaunt from poor nutrition and hard living.LaRue grew up in Colorado and after high school, he moved to Fort Worth because he had family here. He attended community college for a couple of years, and in 1990, at the age of 20, he was accepted into the Fire Department."I had wanted to be one when I was a kid," he said. "And when I found out the schedule was to work one day on, two days off, I really wanted to do that job."His most memorable call was a water rescue at Cobb Park. He was among firefighters who used a ladder to cross the creek and rescue a family from the floodwaters. LaRue married a woman he met through another firefighter. But in 2004, after about five years of marriage, his wife’s mother died suddenly and friction developed between them.He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he said.To escape his problems, LaRue started using drugs, he said. He started with marijuana, then progressed to harder drugs. Cocaine. Methamphetamine.His wife moved away."I basically isolated myself," he said. "I didn’t want to talk to anyone about my problems, just get high. Nobody starts using drugs to become an addict, and I didn’t either. But it is what happens."
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