WOODVILLE, Texas — “Thank you,” is what a Tyler County man is saying to an ADT dispatcher and the first responders who helped save his life after an accident left him engulfed in flames.
John Ramer, 60, of Woodville, believes he is lucky to be alive after a cooking accident went horribly wrong.
"It was surreal, cause it happened so fast,” Ramer said.
The incident happened in April 2022.
Ramer was watching his nephew when he decided to build a fire to roast smores, something he was familiar with. However, the flames followed a trail of fuel and engulfed his body in flames.
“I was about 7 [feet] from the fire, and the canister was 5 [feet] behind me, and I threw it on the fire, and it ran a fire trail in an instant right behind me,” Ramer said. “And I had turned to see what happened and the can blew up. It spit fuel on me, fuel and fire"
Ramer attempted to stop, drop and roll to stop the flames, but it did not work. He tried the only other option he could think of.
"Hello this is ADT home health. Mr. Ramer are you ok?,” an ADT worker said when he answered Ramer’s call for help.
“No, sir,” Raymond answered. “I am not ok, I caught myself on fire. I am burnt pretty bad. Can you send an ambulance?"
Ramer’s home is equipped with an ADT security system. With one push of a button, he was connected with a trained professional.
On Tuesday, Ramer came face-to-face with the heroes who saved him.
Katie Money is the boss of the dispatcher who took Ramer's call.
“We do high level training," Money said. "It's not just you get on the phone one day. We do a 4, 5 week training, and understand that empathy is the biggest thing we do.”
It only took an ambulance 20 minutes to arrive to Ramer's house.
“It normally takes an hour, at least sometimes more,” Ramer said. “Because it went through the ADT system, they were able to get here in twenty minutes.”
Fire Chief Marc Holcomb was one of the first to arrive at the scene.
“It's a great feeling,” Holcomb said. “We do it because we care about our community, and the people in it, and we are just happy we can serve and help the ones we can along the way.”
Ramer's road to recovery was a long one. However, he's alive and well thanks to a team of people who knew what to do to save his life.
“Everything went wrong in an instant, and it can happen to anyone,” Ramer said.
ADT gave a $5,000 donation to the Dam-B Volunteer Fire Department as a thank you for their role in helping save Ramer's life.
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