“It was just a terrible ordeal,” said James Cooper. “It’s like living through a nightmare.”
James Cooper and his family were handed a rude awakening in the early hours of January 22, 2019 as they woke up to a smoke-filled house.
“By the time I opened my eyes everything was black already,” said Cooper. His wife, Dina, woke up to his screams.
“I remember waking up and he was screaming and I just thought maybe he’d had a night terror but I woke up and there was smoke everywhere,” said Dina.
They were able to get their two daughters Breesyn, 5, Ardyn, 1, out quickly because they were already in the room with them, but Dina had to go upstairs to get their son, Davyn, 4.
When Davyn came out without his mother, James had to act quickly.
Without his prosthetic leg, which was lost to the fire, he crawled upstairs to get his wife out, the adrenaline pushing him on.
“There was just no time,” said James.” There was absolutely no time to grab anything. We just reacted at that point, there’s no thinking about it, there’s just do.”
The Coopers had talked about a fire safety plan but Dina said nothing could have prepared them for the real thing.
“She just had fire safety in October, I believe it was, and so we talked about a plan and what we were going to do and none of that mattered.,” said Dina. “None of that could even compare to actually going through it.”
Their house was deemed a total loss, with the Shawnee Township Fire Department estimating around $150-200,000 lost in damage and possessions, making this traumatic event all the more devastating.
But they haven’t had to go through it alone.
“There’s been other stories and people bringing food, clothes ,financial donations, it’s been so amazing,“ said James. “I hope nobody’s ever that down to see all the people around you that would help you out in a situation like this but they’re out there.”
Now, the Coopers are living with James’ mother while looking for a new place to live. They are also looking into replacing James’ prosthetic leg, saying that while Medicare will cover most of the cost, it’s still a big bill to foot.
