Wounded Anchorage firefighter on road to recovery in Colorado

The Anchorage firefighter who was injured this summer is making progress towards his recovery, his father said in an interview. Ben Schultz, an AFD firefighter who fell off a ladder during training and sustained serious injuries, was moved to a rehabilitation center in Denver, Colorado.

It's been four months since Ben was critically injured, and continues on his road to recovery.

"Ben is doing much better than he was when he got here on July 6," said Jeff Schultz, Ben's father. "Ben knows who he is and he knows where he’s been, which is an answer to prayer. He’s awake and he’s doing well on therapy."

His therapy includes a combination of speech and memory, as well as physical an occupational. With speech and memory, Jeff says his son is doing memory games and memory testing to improve his recall.

"His main issue is short term and immediate memory, but he's working on that," Jeff said.

With the physical therapy, Ben is rapidly regaining faculties that doctors initially weren't sure how long could take to happen, if at all.

"He gets around himself in the hospital on his wheelchair. He's learning to re-walk again and function – he's doing very well," Jeff said.

Jeff says his son still needs to work on balance, and does exercises like standing on stairs, with the eventual hope of walking again.

"It’s probably likely, but with brain injuries you just don’t go there – you just take one day at a time," Jeff said.

For occupational therapy, Ben focuses on fulfilling daily tasks. For one such exercise, he was tasked with taking a grocery list to the store and, in his wheelchair, locating all the items on the list.

In a fundraiser held in August, donors were able to raise

. AFD said they only expected to raise around $20,000, but thanks to an outpouring of support in the community, they received over five times that estimate.

"We greatly appreciate the prayers and support from Anchorage," Jeff said. "It’s been really good, the fire department, the community fundraising – all been so great."