Mr Freestone, staying at the Bunk House, smelt smoke, and thought the owner of the house was having a bonfire.
He realised the actual house was on fire, and with quick thinking he managed to rescue James Whitaker, who lives at The Rock House.
As soon as Mr Freestone realised there was a fire in the top flat, he tried to help.
'I smelt smoke and went inside the house, but I couldn't open the door to the flat that was on fire.
'Luckily, there are builders working at the house at the moment so there is scaffolding erected. I climbed up the scaffolding and saw that the window was all dark and black,' said Mr Freestone.
He then descended the scaffolding and raised the alarm.
Mr Freestone went back into The Rock House and this time managed to open the door, where he found Mr Whitaker choking on the stairs.
He managed to get him out of the property to safety.
Mr Freestone denied that he was a hero.
'I think anyone in my position would have done the same thing.
'It was quite scary, but the fact is someone was in the building and I had to get that person out,' said Mr Freestone.
Before fire crews arrived, builders who had been working at The Rock House got up on to the scaffolding and doused the roof to keep it cool.
Firefighters from Newton Abbot and Bovey tackled the blaze for about 20 minutes to get it under control.
An ambulance crew treated Mr Whitaker for smoke inhalation and no further treatment was necessary.
It is thought that the fire started in a kitchen bin at the flat.
Glenn Askew, station officer at Bovey Tracey fire station, said: 'We do not advocate that anyone enters a smoke-filled building. But in this case the civilian did very well.
'If we weren't alerted so quickly the fire could have been a lot worse, the man could have been overcome by smoke, and I needn't say what else could have happened.'
The fire crew stayed at The Rock House for about three hours after fitting smoke detectors round the house.