PARMA, Ohio – Looking at the damage, it’d be hard to forget the morning of Feb. 2.
An old, Chevy pickup truck sits in front of Jim Kovach’s garage.
Tires melted.
Glass broken.
Ash fills the inside.
“You can see the damage to the truck is pretty extensive,” Jim said. “I don’t remember too much about seeing the fire. All I remember is my son said ‘dad, the trucks on fire.’”
Around 4 a.m., neighbors spotted the family truck on fire and called 911, but Jim wasn’t prepared what happened next.
“I ran in the house, and I got up the landing and then I collapsed in the kitchen,” he said.
Jim, 70, went into cardiac arrest. He wasn’t breathing.
His wife Kathy, panicked, made a second call to 911.
“I just prayed to save my husband’s life, not to take him,” she said. “And I thank God for that, to still have him.”
Parma Police and Fire and the North Royalton Fire Departments responded to the scene.
Parma crews tended to Jim, while the North Royalton crew worked on the truck.
“I guess they had to zap me like seven or eight times before they got me breathing again,” Jim said.
Jim was taken to the hospital, where he eventually had five bypasses on his heart. He stayed there for a week-and-a-half, and when he returned home, he started writing.
“I wanted to thank the men who saved me,” he said.
Days passed.
Jim never thought much about the cards he sent to the police and fire stations – but the firefighters didn’t quite forget that night.
“On this day, everything lined up perfectly,” said Parma fire captain George Moser. “To be honest with you, after seeing him that night, here were are, a month later I didn’t think I’d see him again. That’s a good feeling, for sure.”
On Friday, Jim, Kathy and a couple friends visited the firefighters who brought the man back to life. Kathy gave the rescuers baked goods as her eyes filled with tears.
“It just hit me now,” she said, softly. “They all helped out, they’re just wonderful for what they did and brought my husband back because they had to revive him seven times. Keeping me calm, my son calm. I want to thank everyone involved for helping us.”
Jim and Kathy have been married for 47 years and for 46 of those years, they’ve lived in Parma.
Thanks to a strange twist of fate and with the help of these local heroes, the couple will have many more years to celebrate together.
“They all wished me well and good health and all that,” Jim said. “We just told them how thankful we are that they were there and saved my life,” Jim said. “It’s important. They saved me.”