A Vietnam veteran had to be rescued after desperately trying to stop his own house burning down in the middle of the day.

Grandfather David Stewart, 74, lost his longtime home in Waukegan, Illinois, in a devastating fire and remains in hospital with burn injuries.

The blaze has left a community in shock and prompted a fundraising appeal aiming to raise $75k to support him.

Fire crews were called out on May 13 at around 2:30pm, after the fire began at the back of Mr Stewart's home, near a shed.

Acting on instinct, Mr Stewart tried to douse the flames with a garden hose but was unable to get the fire under control.

Mr Stewart, who was pulled away from the scene by a neighbour, is now in recovery as the cause remains under investigation.

His daughter Christina Walker, 46, a project manager in Kenosha, Wisconsin."He must've thought, ‘I could get this under control,' because you could see that he was trying to put it out with his garden hose and he was not successful."

The flames spread rapidly up the back of the house and into the eaves, ultimately overtaking the older, one-story residence and causing significant damage.

Stewart's neighbor, seeing the danger, had to physically remove him from the backyard as he continued his desperate efforts to extinguish the fire.

The neighbor then called Christina and her husband, Kelly, 50, who works in manufacturing, who were out of town in Florida at the time.

The first sign that something was wrong came via a flood of notifications from their home security system.

She added: "We got the notifications on our phone when there's someone approaching the home."

"We were out to lunch, and didn't receive any notifications. And then when we left the restaurant, we both got 20 notifications all at once. "

"It was like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam."

Upon checking their security camera app, the couple made a frightening discovery.

"We saw the reflective nature of a fireman's jacket," Christina said. "I looked on my phone and saw that there was a firetruck in front of his house."

The fire reportedly started around 2:30 p.m. in the rear of the home near a shed containing a snow plow and street salt.

Fire crews arrived on the scene approximately 15 minutes after the fire is believed to have started.

By the time the Walkers' security cameras captured the fire trucks pulling up, firefighters were already unloading equipment.

"They had the fire truck already pulled up and were starting to get the hoses out and get the water on the house," Christina added."

To gain entry, firefighters had to pry open the home's locked front doors.

As they forced the doors open, thick smoke began pouring out from the top of the doorway, signaling the severity of the fire that had engulfed the inside of the house.

Eventually, the fire department was able to distinguish the flames.

Although Mr Stewart remains traumatized about the incident and unwilling to expand in detail, he said: "I'm anxious to get home and wondering how long it will take."

He served in the military as an electronic mechanic between 1968 and 1974.

His dedication to his country is reflected in his children — both Christina's brother and sister have served in the Navy, and his granddaughter daughter Mia, 21, a student from Kenosha, plans to commission as a naval officer.

Along with Mia, Christina and Kelly share another daughter, Mykaela, 22, a student, also from Kenosha.

"He's a super proud Vietnam veteran. He raised our whole family to believe that freedom is not free and that we all need to do our part," she said. "

"He instilled a life of service between all of us — that we should take care of the people around us whenever we can. And that's what we've all done."

Now, as Mr Stewart recovers from his injuries and the total loss of his home, his family is hoping the community will step up for a man who has always put others first.

They started a SupportNow page with the goal to raise so he can get back on his feet.

"I'm hoping that we could get some people to rally around my dad, how he's always rallying around everyone else in his life," she added."

VIsit https://www.supportnow.org/david-stewart for more details.