ORCHARD - Ken Heimendinger awoke to heavy smoke and his farmhouse on fire early Sunday morning at 3280 Highway 218 near Orchard.

Trapped in a bedroom directly above the fire, the director of the Solid Waste Management Agency in Floyd, Mitchell and Chickasaw counties said he was having trouble breathing.

"I finally made it to a window for air," he said, explaining that he broke the glass. "I hung out a window to breathe, then I would go back to try to find the phone, then to the window, back and forth, until I found it."

But Heimendinger still couldn't make a call for help with the cordless phone because electricity to house had been knocked out by the fire.

"I had to get breaths of air and crawl back and try to find my cell phone, which took several attempts," he said. "Finally I was able to get it from the far side of the room and called for help."

He said after making the 911 call help arrived fairly quickly.

"An officer arrived and got my ladder out of the machine shed and got it up to the second story window to me," he said. "I tore my leg up squeezing through the small window. I would say it was close to an hour from the time I awoke until I was able to exit the house."

Firefighters from Osage and Floyd responded to the fire at 4:50 a.m.

The fire burned everything in the living room and dining room in Heimendinger's house.

He said the living room is now in the basement. The rest of the contents were destroyed by the smoke, heat and water.

"My chest still hurts from breathing all that smoke," he said on Monday. "My leg and neck is real sore, and I scraped my nose."

His 14-year-old chocolate Lab, Grimmy, was downstairs.

She was found by the firefighters, unresponsive, but she was revived and taken to a veterinary clinic where she is in serious condition.

Heimendinger said his home is insured and that he has found a place to live in Osage.

"My biggest problem now is all the wires in the house are gone," he said, "I can't pump water for my livestock or plug in any heaters for the livestock waterers."

Investigators say no cause of the fire has yet been determined.

Contact Bob Link at bob.link@globegazette.com.