Quick Thinker Saves Brother, Dog

A 13-year-old boy awakened his sleeping brother and the two pushed their dog through a bedroom window, escaping flames that swept through the family’s Mission Viejo home Tuesday morning.

Firefighters credited quick-thinking Chris Loper with saving the life of his 14-year-old brother, Jim. His parents, who were commuting to work when the fire started shortly before 7 a.m., had nothing but praise for their young hero later that day.

“Just great,” said Ruth Woodruff, 30. “He handled it real well.”

The cause of the early-morning blaze remained under investigation Tuesday night, and the family was being lodged for the evening by the Red Cross at a local hotel, authorities said.

Damage from the fire, which consumed the home, an adjoining garage and a new, 1987 Chrysler New Yorker parked inside, was estimated at $125,000, according to Capt. Patrick McIntosh, a spokesman for the county Fire Department.

It was a hard blow for the family, having just bought the home in the 24300 block of Chrisanta Drive three months ago after moving from Garden Grove.

“We came out here for the area, the lake, the schools,” said Tom Woodruff, 46, who works as a maintenance foreman with his wife, a manufacturing engineer, at a Long Beach aerospace plant.

The frightening drama began when Chris Loper heard a smoke detector go off and then, suddenly, the lights flickered.

Choking smoke spilled out of the kitchen as the ceiling collapsed in flames while Chris walked down the hall. Waking his brother, the two helped their white Husky, Josephine, out a window before they ran to neighbors and called 911, the emergency number.

Standing outside the house as flames leaped skyward, Jim Loper said he struggled to save the family’s new car by spraying water onto the garage with a garden hose.

“I was trying to spray the house, but the heat kept pushing me back and I was getting fried,” Jim said Tuesday evening as the family’s insurance agent talked with his stepfather.

“My dad taped a lot of movies and they’re gone,” he said, his voice a whisper. “Everything, bye-bye.”

When firefighters arrived a few minutes after 7, the roof, garage and attic were engulfed in flames, McIntosh said.

“It was pretty much destroyed,” he added.

Jim, who attends nearby La Paz Intermediate School with his brother, said their classmates could see the flames from the school. Friends had been dropping by all day to see if the family was safe, he said.

Tom Woodruff said the family had saved enough money to get through the next couple of months. Looking over the charred ruins of what had been home just hours earlier, he said he hoped to find a new house in the same neighborhood.

Woodruff and his wife rushed back home when authorities reached them at work.

One happy note: Earlier, the parents had discussed with the teen-agers what to do in a fire. “We talked about it,” Woodruff said with a smile.