The fire broke out around 3 a.m., and thanks to a neighbor’s warning, real estate broker Scott Tracy and his family escaped without harm.

But a few hours later, he saw that his Huntington Beach home was in shambles. The accidental ignition of rags had destroyed his garage, and, when he factored in smoke damage, he realized it took the front half his  1,750-square-foot, three-bedroom house with it.

That was in May 2008. Tracy quickly decided to turn the catastrophe into a bold experiment: how much of the reconstruction could be “green?”

“All of a sudden, I go, ‘This is what I have to do,’” Tracy said. “And I did it.”

A little more than a year later, Tracy has decided to offer public tours of his green-tinted renovation. The first open house will be held Sunday, Aug. 9; Tracy is especially hopeful that he’ll attract other homeowners interested in making the same kinds of changes themselves.

As Tracy walked through the nearly complete renovation Thursday, he pointed out the green features, both obvious and subtle.

He used recycled blue jeans for insulation and eco-friendly, low-polluting paint, glues and finish on the walls, floors  and cabinets. He installed a tankless water heater, a cleverly designed natural skylight in the kitchen and special LED electric lights to save energy.

The wood floors are made of bamboo. The bar stools are made from mango trees from a sustainably grown forest. The countertops are part bamboo and part recycled paper, and the bathroom walls are covered in limestone plaster called “eco stucco.”

He used recycled building materials as often as he could — including rescuing roof tiles, molding and floor tiles that hadn’t been damaged in the fire — as well as fly-ash concrete, made from material that is recycled from coal-fired power plants instead of being sent to a landfill.

“We used local lumber, which is ec0-groovy,” Tracy said.

He did research to find suitable green products on the Web and in the library, and searched out local vendors whenever possible to limit the amount of fuel used to transport the products. He got help from Pam Sterling, owner of Lagunagreen ecomart kitchen and bath gallery in Laguna Beach.

But rebuilding his home in high green style was a challenge, he said – not only for him but for the contractors and vendors he had to persuade to find and use environmentally friendly materials.

“They didn’t want to do anything the way I wanted to do it,” Tracy said.

A dispute erupted with a lumber company when he insisted on FSC — Forest Stewardship Council certified — wood.

“I had them take their lumber back,” Tracy said. “The contractor had a hissy fit. He was saying, ‘That’s going to cost you $10,000 more for lumber.’”

But just by searching among local companies, he said, he found certified wood for about the same price.

“So many things are right here, that you wouldn’t think are in Orange County,” he said.

He didn’t stop with the housing construction. Tracy had to get rid of furniture and other items that no longer fit his plans. So he posted notices on Craig’s list and Freecycle.org to give the items away, free of cost, instead of sending them to the trash heap.

People in need of furniture, including college students, jumped on the items, coming to his house to haul them away.

 ”I had a cabinet that was wall to wall,” he said. “I had to saw it in half, and I put in ads — one for one half, one for the other. And they picked it up!”

Tracy said his wife, Carmen, and their two children also have taken part in the rebuilding effort — Carmen, in fact, found the mango chairs, and the children, ages 11 amd 9, helped separate wood and install the blue-jean insulation.

When he mentions his efforts to friends, they often don’t believe him.

“Everyone just laughs,” Tracy said. “They’re incredulous. If everyone does this, it ends up turning out all right.”

Visit the open house at the renovated Tracy home, 9092 Bermuda Dr. in Huntington Beach, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.  Sunday, Aug. 9.

Coming soon to Green OC: guide to home renovation.

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