A man and his son caught in a grass fire a year ago are recovering ahead of schedule, thanks in part to support from their community.

Ron and Evan Wedrick were helping to control a fire just outside of Tompkins on October 17, 2017, when they were caught within the blaze.

Ron was driving with his son near the fire when the tires on their truck popped, forcing them both to continue on foot, resulting in severe burns being suffered by both the men.

Just over a year later, the mother of Evan and Wife of Ron, Twila Wedrick, says that they are both doing well.

"You know there's going to be up and down days of course, obviously, because they are still going through the recovery process but they're doing really well, like really good, so both boys are home and both are working."

After the incident happened, an outpouring of support from the community was felt by the family, with online donation pages set up, as well as a fundraising hog roast and auction to support the family.

The hog roast held in the town of Tompkins raised $133,000 from the silent and live auction.
Twila said that the close-knit community helped the two men be able to take time to heal.

"It's like just amazing being a part of a small community, there are people just rallying together and that what small communities are all about, everybody's close together and they have each others back, and I truly believe that we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them, they were really instrumental in the process of my boys healing, and allowed them to take the time to heal."

Speaking more on the communities response, Twila said that the size of the community did not reflect the larger-than-life response that was seen by her family.

"When asked about where we're from, it's not about the name of the community, but about the people that live there," she stated. "We may be small, but we rally together in big numbers."

When originally admitted to the hospital, they were told that they would have to stay for six months to a year, but Twila said that they had a much faster recovery.

"The boys did really well, when we first got to the hospital they told us that they would probably be in the hospital six months to a year, and Ron was out in 22 days, and Evan was out, I want to say three to four months, but everyone was out in their six month time frame."

Twila said that the family was thankful that the community was there for them in their time of need.

"We'll just be paying it forward, it's usually us that are helping other people in the community and doing things, so it was kind of crazy to be on the other end of things, but, we're very grateful, and we're from such amazing communities, we're really blessed and very grateful."

Twila said that co-workers supported her husband and son's recovery process by covering their shifts at their jobs while they were healing.