Anaheim : Stroke Victim Perishes in Accidental Home Fire

A stroke victim died from third-degree burns when he accidentally set a piece of furniture on fire Monday evening in his home and failed to escape the burning room quickly enough to save himself, officials said.

Alex MacDougall, 67, died at 7:38 a.m. Tuesday in the burn ward of the UCI Medical Center, according to Michael Doty, an Anaheim fire investigator. Doty said the fire started when MacDougall was sitting in his reclining chair watching a football game on television in his home at 929 N. Mohican St. MacDougall, who had suffered several strokes during the last 10 years, had some newspapers and napkins around his chair and struck a match or lighter, officials said. The couch caught on fire and the blaze spread to the living room drapes.

MacDougall’s wife, Lillian, was outside the house talking to a neighbor when she saw the fire from the window, rushed into the house and saw her husband, standing unharmed, looking at the burning chair, authorities added.

The woman told investigators that she tried to call the Fire Department, but the fire caused the lights to black out. She tried to find her husband in the fire, but was unable to see him because of the smoke.

Doty said that a neighbor, Leo Zanacona, pulled the woman to safety, and then made three unsuccessful attempts to find MacDougall in the burning home. Firefighters--who speculated that MacDougall remained too long in the room because of his disability from previous strokes--put out the blaze before it consumed the rest of the house.

MacDougall was rushed by paramedics to the hospital, where he later died. A spokesman for the Orange County coroner’s office said it would not be known if the man died from burns or from a stroke until after an autopsy is conducted.

The fire caused an estimated $15,000 damage to the home, according to Michael Feeney, an Anaheim Fire Department investigator.