VIDEO: Idaho Fire Department Volunteers Build Wheelchair Ramp for Veteran

A local Idaho fire department surprised a disabled veteran with a wheelchair ramp after neighbors noticed he had difficulty getting around.

Dewey Treat, a veteran who has lived in Nampa for several years, says he gets around using a power chair.

“I can still hobble around on a cane, but it’s going downhill,” Treat told KTVB.

But his neighbors, Ben Houston and Reed Pacheco, noticed that their neighbor had issues getting in and out of his home and needed a safe wheelchair ramp to do that.

“We heard about Dewey just not being safe, and being a disabled veteran, we wanted to get him help,” Pacheco said.

Pacheco asked the Nampa Fire Department for ideas, but the fire department gave a whole lot more.

“My friend Reed knocked on my door one afternoon and he says if a couple of guys come by to look at your ramp, don’t run them off. I said, ‘What are they coming for?’ He said just to check it out and be sure it’s safe,” Treat explained.

Not too long after Pacheco reached out to Treat, the Nampa Fire Department came to Treat’s house with a hook and ladder truck and a pickup truck full of materials to build the wheelchair ramp.

Treat said he was overwhelmed by the situation.

“I just was overwhelmed, hard not to get teary-eyed, you know,” he said.

Other veterans have recently been surprised with improved homes as a thank you for serving in the military. A wounded Marine veteran injured in Iraq got the surprise of a lifetime on Saturday when the nonprofit Building Homes for Heroes gifted him a mortgage-free home in Savannah.