The True Story Of The Little Boy Who Wanted To Be A Fireman & Was Not From Fort Worth

This morning Miss CVB of Sedro Woolley, Washington emailed me the story of a little boy who died from Leukemia, who wanted to be a fireman when he grew up. It was a touching story, but seemed hokey to me. So, I looked it up and quickly found there were several versions. The one Miss CVB sent me had the little boy being a Canadian in Calgary, Alberta.

So, with me thinking the story was a total hoax, urban legend, myth type thing I changed all the instances of Calgary to Fort Worth. And blogged it.

Soon after that Miss CVB emailed me that she was "crushed to learn it was not true."

Then I got a message from Steve A telling me, "The story IS true, albeit from Phoenix rather than Fort Worth. Even the off the wall bit about the firefighters climbing through the window is true."

Well, sort of true. In the real story it was 5 firemen, not 16. The boy's name was not "Billy." It was Frank "Bopsy" Salazar. The boy was 7, not 6. The story was lifted from the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book. The boy was the first "wish child" helped by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The little boy wanted to be a fireman, ride in a hot air balloon and go to Disneyland. He got all 3 wishes. It is true the little boy was given a fireman's uniform. In the real story he got a ride in a firetruck and squirted a few cars with the fire hose.

In the real story the boy's condition worsened after the trip to Disneyland. He was back in the hospital, third floor. A fireman knocked on the room's window, it was opened and in crawled the 5 firemen. Later that evening the boy died.