Clermont cop burned in bonfire improving
With limited air reaching his vocal cords, Kris Kruse struggled to get out the words “I love you, Liz” to his girlfriend.
From his hospital bed at UF Health Shands Burn Center in Gainesville, the 21-year-old Clermont rookie cop spoke to Liz Darrah for the first time since he suffered burns to more than 65 percent of his body in a backyard bonfire accident. Tears filled her eyes.
“I’ve never been so happy to be able to hear his voice,” said Darrah, 22. “You never know how much you miss hearing someone’s voice until you can’t hear it.”
It had been two weeks since Kruse last spoke, just before he grabbed a gas can he noticed sitting dangerously close to the bonfire he and two roommates were enjoying on Super Bowl Sunday. The gas can erupted in
flames, severely burning the officer who seven months earlier had followed his dad’s footsteps into law enforcement — even into the same department.
Darrah, who had been goofing around with Kruse earlier, tossed her jacket on him. Her quick actions may have protected his upper body from more serious wounds. The fire was extinguished half a minute later, but the damage was done.
Kruse was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he fought for his life. Days after the Feb. 7 mishap, his mother, Jill Kruse, said the family was living “minute to minute.”
In the three weeks since the accident, the young officer’s outlook has much improved. His face had significant burning and scabbing but now is nearly healed.
“He’ll probably have a nicer face than when he went in,” said his father, fellow Clermont cop Jack Kruse, a
seven-year veteran who presided in July over the pinning ceremony when his son became an officer.
Said Darrah: “He looks100 percent like himself on his face.”
But he still faces an uphill battle to get back on his feet.
Days after Kruse was moved to the UF Shands Burn Center in Gainesville for more specialized care, doctors took skin from his upper back and used it to repair parts of his left arm and abdomen.
The most significant dam-
age was done to his hands and legs. He faces multiple surgeries, but the outlook is more positive than it initially appeared, Jack Kruse said.
“We’re much, much more upbeat,” he said. “I was in fear of losing him, and I think we’re beyond that. We don’t lay here in fear that he’s going to pass.”
Thousands of sympathizers have followed Kris Kruse’s progress through his dad’s Facebook posts. Many have helped monetarily — a GoFundMe account has raised almost $30,000 for the family’s ever-rising hospital bills.
Even Tim Tebow is showing concern. The former UF quarterback signed a football and Gators hat for Kris Kruse when he was in Clermont last Sunday for an appearance at a local church.
“I had no concept that there was this many generous people in this world,” Jack Kruse said. “In my job, I see the worst people for the most part. Police officers tend to become very cynical. It’s just completely changed my view of people in general.”
As if Kris Kruse’s injuries weren’t enough of a challenge for the family, Jack Kruse also is on the mend from a paraglider accident last month in Melbourne Beach that left him with numerous broken bones. A skilled runner who finished 14th in the 1984 Boston Marathon, Jack Kruse was told he may never run again.
He also may never be able to return to the police force to work alongside his son. It had been a dream of theirs to work together. Kris started down the path to make that happen when he entered the Clermont Police Department’s police explorers program when he was13.
Whether Kris Kruse is able to go back to work may depend on how damaged his hands are, his dad said.
In the meantime, the plans Kris Kruse and Darrah had to take classes this summer at Lake-Sumter State College are on hold. Darrah gave up her job as a waitress at Buffalo Wild Wings in Clermont and hopes to transfer to a Gainesville location so she can be closer to Kruse.
More than anything, she just wants a hug.
“The one person that I want to hold me and hug me,” she said, “is the one person that can’t.”