PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — 60-year-old Ricky Price and his dogs Tank and Bella are all alive today thanks to unlikely heroes.
“If it wouldn't have been for them, it would have been bad news for me,” Price says.
Just weeks ago, he and the dogs were trapped inside his burning home on Manorford Drive in Parma Heights.
“At one time I felt like my legs were burning together, melting together, and I knew then I got get out of here,” Price recalls.
He then yelled for assistance from his bedroom window.
“I heard somebody around back screaming ‘help me, help me, help me,’ explains Sean Groom, a FirstEnergy employee who was working near Price’s house after severe storms knocked out power in the area.
“I could see the gentlemen standing there at the window,” adds Brian Green, a FirstEnergy distribution technician who was also working in the area. “His mouth was black with smoke inhalation and soot and so I knew we were facing an issue.”
Green and Groom pulled Price out of the window while another FirstEnergy employee, Rob Cecil, helped catch him by using a wicker couch to soften Price’s fall.
“Our main concern was to get that guy out of the house,” Groom explains.
The FirstEnergy turned First Responder trio is also credited with getting Bella out of the home and telling firefighters Tank was still inside.
“Them guys didn't have to come looking for me,” Price says. “They could of just stayed working and went on, but they didn't. They came looking for somebody that was in trouble and they found me.”
Green, Cecil and Groom immediately returned to their day jobs after the rescue.
“It didn’t seem like anybody wanted to talk to us at the time, so we just went back to work,” Grooms shared with the press Wednesday from the company's Strongsville Service Center. “I'm just glad that we were in the right place at the right time.”
Price, who is currently staying at a hotel with his wife, son and dogs, has not been in contact with the men who saved his life since the rescue.
But he wants that to change.
“Hopefully this time I can meet up with them and just go talk to them … buy them lunch or anything,” Price says. “There's not enough that I can do for them.”
As far as the cause of the Aug. 8 blaze, Price says firefighters believe that one of the dogs accidentally hit a knob on the stove, turning it on. But Price isn’t mad at the dogs because they’re his best friends.
Both Price and Tank were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. Price says he’s focused on their recovery and getting his family back into their home, which is expected to take six means.