Man Killed as Fire Guts House in Lake Forest

A 32-year-old man died early Wednesday in a fire that gutted his family’s Lake Forest home.

The blaze broke out about 7:45 a.m. in the 21500 block of Via Serpiente, trapping the man and his dog, blowing out windows and sending frantic neighbors running to help.

“There was a plume of black smoke shooting straight up,” said Susan Fraser, 44, a 10-year resident of the neighborhood. “By the time we ran outside, the house was gone. I was really hoping no one was inside.”

Firefighters found the man’s body on an upstairs landing. His dog, a cocker spaniel, was found downstairs.

It took 40 firefighters about 30 minutes to extinguish the flames, which extensively damaged the top floor. The fire’s cause has not been determined, and the dead man has not been officially identified.

But neighbors said the victim was Greg Everett. They said he shared the home with his parents, who are away on a one-week European vacation with members of their church.

It was the first time in many years that they had left their son -- who neighbors said suffered from schizophrenia -- alone.

On Saturday, the day after they left, Greg Everett hosted a party at a neighbor’s house across the street to celebrate the occasion with pizza and ginger ale.

“He organized the party for being left home alone for the first time,” said Dave Amorde, 45, who attended the celebration. “He was very animated and happy to be on his own.”

On Sunday, however, Everett began to act strangely, neighbors said. They speculated that he may have stopped taking his medication. Then, apparently, he left town to visit a relative, leaving behind a disjointed note asking a neighbor to feed the dog.

Neighbors remembered Everett, who until recently had worked as a movie ticket taker in Irvine, as a friendly man who loved to read and often took morning walks around the neighborhood. “When he was on medication, he was fine,” Amorde said.

Everett apparently had returned to the home by early Wednesday. Neighbor Ernst Scipio, a 79-year-old retired engineer who has known the Everett family for 25 years, said he could hear Everett shouting at 4 a.m.

A few hours later neighbors were awakened by a fire alarm, screams and broken glass. Several tried to remove charred furniture from the house as flames shot through the roof, but the fire was too intense.

Hamid Dabestani, 46, who lives next door, said he grabbed a garden hose and tried to put out the flames from his backyard.

“The flames were so high, and no one could do anything about it,” he said, standing in his flooded backyard. “I’m crazy right now. I’m a nervous wreck.”

The two-story house was engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived.

Firefighters were unable to reach Everett in time to save his life.

“They tried the front and rear attacks, but the heat was too much and pushed them back,” said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Miller. “They could only make it up half the stairs.”

Staring at the charred home in shock hours later, neighbor Mark Heppner, 40, said he couldn’t help but remember another fire: a 1987 blaze that left his family homeless.

It was Everett’s parents, Robert and Susan Everett, who offered him, his girlfriend, mother and two dogs a place to stay. Robert and Susan moved to an upstairs bedroom so he could have the entire bottom floor. And during the eight months it took to rebuild his home, the parents often checked on his well-being. “They were the only ones who came and took us in,” Heppner said. “I can’t believe it’s happened to them.”