Neighbors Rescue Man Trapped in Laguna Niguel Fire : 59-Year-Old With Huntington’s Disease Lost Home but Not Life

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  When residents heard the crackling sounds of fire Tuesday night, they feared trouble. When they saw it was Phillip Buttle’s house ablaze, they feared big trouble.

Buttle, 59, has a neural disorder that neighbors said often forced him to catch his balance during strolls with his two dogs along La Hermosa Avenue. Neighbors watched 35-foot flames leap from the house and worried he’d never get out.

“The whole garage was one big ball of fire. I realized it was Phil and he has Huntington’s disease and couldn’t get out by himself,” said Wy Bauman, whose family lives just up the hill. “A healthy person would have trouble getting out with that amount of smoke and fire.”

Her son, Barclay Bauman, jumped a fence and raced to the burning house, joined by next-door neighbor Steve Moseman. Moseman crawled through a smoke-filled bedroom toward the sound of coughing, locating Buttle curled on the floor with his two cocker spaniels, then dragged him to safety.

Buttle suffered smoke inhalation and was in fair condition Wednesday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center.

Fire officials said the neighbors’ quick work probably saved his life.

“They deserve credit for what they did,” said Emmy Day, spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department. “I’m not sure the average person would do that.”

Bauman, a 19-year-old student at Saddleback College, was asleep when his father heard the crackling noises and then a series of small explosions just before midnight. John Bauman said he looked out to see flames leaping from the Buttle house.

“It was almost like somebody dropped a bomb on the house,” he said.

Barclay Bauman awakened to his mother’s shouts and ran down the hill to Buttle’s house in the 24000 block of La Hermosa Avenue as his father called 911. Moseman, who had been watching television next door, also raced to the house, the front part of which was already enveloped by flames and billowing smoke, he said. The two ran to the side of the house and Moseman broke a bathroom window, calling to see if anyone was inside. No one answered, he said.

The pair went to the rear and Bauman slid open a glass door, unleashing a blast of acrid smoke. As he went to open a second sliding door, Moseman heard someone coughing inside.

“All I heard was a hacking sound, like a guy was coughing up a lung,” said Moseman, a 24-year-old restaurant worker. “The smoke was incredible. You couldn’t breathe the stuff.”

On his hands and knees, Moseman groped his way toward the noise. Five feet inside, he found Buttle, conscious but disoriented, and managed to pull him outside to safety before firefighters arrived. The dogs followed them out and were unharmed.

The blaze destroyed the single-story house, causing a total of more than $300,000 in damages, Day said. She said the fire appeared to start in the kitchen and may have been sparked by a “careless” action, such as an appliance left on. She said neighbors did not hear a smoke alarm.

“Either there is no smoke detector there or it wasn’t working,” she said, noting the damage to the house was too severe to tell.

Moseman recalled Wednesday that a year ago he was living in Laguna Beach when the wildfire swept through and he and neighbors fought to save their homes with garden hoses.

“It’s weird,” Moseman said. “I smelled exactly the same a year ago as I did last night.”