FACES OF THE FIRE : Couple Overjoyed to Find Uninsured Home Unscathed : Aftermath: Doris Bender’s and To Bui’s $350,000 house was among few left standing in Mystic Hills neighborhood.
LAGUNA BEACH — A combination of good construction, skilled firefighting and a little luck saved Doris Bender’s uninsured, $350,000 house from the firestorm that incinerated the rest of her Mystic Hills neighborhood.
As Bender fled the fire Wednesday afternoon, she thought she would never see her house again, she recalled Thursday.
Her husband, To Bui, had spent two years building the four-bedroom, ocean-view home with a friend, paying close attention to fireproofing it.
When Bui and Bender returned Thursday morning, nearly every house on three streets in Mystic Hills had burned to the ground.
But the Bui-Bender home, in the 1500 block of Tahiti Avenue, was saved by a fire crew that found a hydrant in front of the house and decided to make one last stand.
Damage to the house was limited to two broken windows.
“I’m very thankful,†Bender said. “My house is OK, but other houses are gone.â€
“The fire came from in front and in back,†she said in amazement, recalling her quick escape Wednesday.
As flames descended the Mystic Hills ridge Wednesday afternoon, Bui sprayed his house with a garden hose. He said he finally drove away in fear. Cinders chased him down the slope, as the fire jumped from house to house.
Orange County Fire Capt. Jeff Genoway, who led the defense Wednesday in that area, came back by chance Thursday afternoon to the Bui-Bender home to extinguish a small neighboring fire.
He told Bender his fire engine spent 3 1/2 hours Wednesday night working to save her house.
Bender, a 44-year-old homemaker, hugged the fire captain.
The decision to save the Bui-Bender home was just a matter of good judgment, Genoway said.
“It was the least flammable,†he said of the tile-roofed stucco house. “It had no exterior wood. There was a fire hydrant in front of the house.â€
Genoway said all the other houses on the block were on fire when his engine arrived about 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“We dug in. This was our project,†Genoway said.
Three other firefighters worked with Genoway to combat the blaze, he said.
Genoway said he was a little surprised he was able to save the house.
“The flames from the house next door. . . . It was so bright inside†Bender’s house, he told her.
But the house, which was built with some fire-retardant materials, stood firm.
“I love to build houses,†Bui said. “I love to see how the house grows with my hands. It’s like a plant. It grows every day.â€
Not quite out of danger, Bender, Bui and their son Patrick Bui-Bender, 15, looked on anxiously Thursday as firefighters put out flames at a neighbor’s house.
The Marine Corps helped squelch the flare-up. Marines were in the area making a house-to-house search for any dead among the rubble. But no bodies were found.
As Bui and Bender savored their good fortune, some neighbors sifted ashes for keepsakes.
Bui, a 42-year-old civil engineer, said he built 10 houses in Germany, where he lived for 19 years and met his wife. He is originally from Vietnam.
Bui and Bender and their four children have lived for a year and a half in the Mystic Hills house. Bender said she and her husband had not gotten around to securing any fire insurance.
Bui said he was stunned by the sparing of his house.
He spotted the undamaged home at 10 a.m. Thursday after a night of worry.
“I saw it from a street below,†he said. “I saw my house, and it felt so good.â€
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