In 1992, Sen. Tom Butler was jogging near his Madison home when something went wrong. Pain was shooting through his chest and he was losing consciousness. He was in cardiac arrest.

In November, it will be 15 years since Butler had a heart attac. He knows he is a lucky, lucky man.

“I count every year as a blessing,” Butler said Tuesday.

He credits the Madison Fire Department’s quick response and the use of a defibrillator with saving his life. At that time, Madison had the defibrillator for only eight days.

A week after his heart attack, Butler underwent triple-bypass surgery in Huntsville Hospital. Since then, he has been working to get defibrillators in all fire departments and schools in the area.

On Tuesday, he and Rep. Henry White awarded a $35,000 grant to the Athens Fire Department to purchase equipment to start an emergency-medica-services response program.

The grant will allow the city of Athens to purchase defibrillators and other emergency-medical equipment to run first-response calls to residents inside the Athens city limits.

Athens s Fire Chief Cliff Christopher said firefighters would implement the first- responder program as soon as equipment is ready and firefighters are trained.

“We hope to have everything in full force by Jan. 1, 2008,” he said.

“We will be responding to wrecks and critical situations such as heart attacks once we have our folks fully trained,” said Christopher. “We have a 3-to-5 minute response time anywhere in the city and we will be working in conjunction with the hospital ambulance service.”

Christopher said the Fire Department has several emergency medical technicians and two paramedics. He said under the new program, all firefighters would be trained as EMTs. He said a first-responder course takes 40 hours to complete.

“The 3-to-5 minute response time is critical for someone having a heart attack,” said Butler. “The thing is to have the individual stabilized by the time the ambulance arrives on the scene.”

Butler said fire departments in Decatur, Huntsville and Madison already have EMS programs and now the Athens Fire Department will have an EMS program that will save lives. He has been working with Athens Mayor Dan Williams and Christopher on the state grant for more than a year.

Butler and White praised Christopher and his department, as well as the mayor and Athens City Council members for their progressive steps in starting an emergency-medical response program at the Fire Department.

“This will definitely save lives and it is a worthy investment,” White said.