Firefighter Donnie Thimmes, 66, was seriously burned and lost a finger and four toes after walking into the down lines after responding to the blaze on Krile Road in Sugar Grove at around 7:30 p.m. on April 5.
"That magnetic force was just so intense there was just no way you could ever get away from it," he told the newspaper, adding that the shock instantly immobilized him and "everything went black."
He spent eight weeks in a coma at Ohio State University Medical Center before being transferred to Altercare of Canal Winchester and is now going to Primrose Retirement Center to complete his therapy.
Thimnmes has undergone 14 operations with 11 different specialists.
The only thing he remembers after the incident is waking up in a hospital.
"My body had been dormant for so long, I had to rehabilitate," he said. "My body had to start from scratch."
He was Altercare's first burn patient and the staff said he has been an inspiration to everyone.
"We've seen him come from nothing to being able to move on his own and being able to walk," Nurse Georgette Lodwick told the newspaper. "He's our hero and our miracle."
