A house on Lake Desire caught fire about 4 a.m. Friday, sending a man to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition, said Renton deputy fire chief Mark Peterson.

Neighbor Pat Halloran awoke to the cracking sounds of the fire and joined neighbors in an attempt to squelch it with garden hoses on the 18000 block of East Lake Desire Drive Southeast, east of Fairwood.

“The whole house was just engulfed,” he said. “All the windows were exploding and breaking out.”

The victim’s bedroom in the top floor was consumed in fire and neighbors had assumed the worst, when they heard the resident’s cry for help from a narrow ground-level window, Halloran said.

A firefighter was circling the house for the first time when he also heard the cries.

The neighbors broke away the glass and pulled the man to safety through the about 18-inch wide window with help from the firefighter.

The victim’s skin was dirty with smoke, but appeared to only have a few burns, Halloran said.

“He was coherent. He was answering all the questions,” he said.

About 35 firefighters and seven fire engines participated in putting out the two-alarm fire, which blazed about an hour along the lake’s shore.

Fire and arson investigators with the King County Sheriff’s Office started work late Friday morning.

“Everytime neighbors do something to try to make a difference you have to applaud them,” Peterson said.