DOVER, N.H.
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A neighbor and a passer-by helped rescue a man from a burning apartment in Dover late Wednesday night.
A fire broke out in an eight-unit apartment building on Third Street about 9:30 p.m. Resident Taras Lane said he heard an alarm go off, and people started evacuating the building.
But his downstairs neighbor, a man in his 50s living alone, wasn't able to get out. The fire had begun in his apartment, and another man, Lee Murray, had rushed into the building but couldn't get the man's door open.
"I went in and went down to his door to his apartment," Murray said. "It was too much smoke. I had to come out."
"I just finally kicked the door in, and then the upstairs neighbor was trying to get the fire extinguisher out of the glass, but he couldn't get it, so I just punched the glass and took it out and went partway into his apartment, but the fire was in the living room," Lane said.
Lane, who is friendly with the victim, called his name but didn't get a response. Eventually, the fire extinguisher ran out.
"I finally came out and went outside and ripped the screen off the window," he said.
When Lane leaned into the apartment, he heard a moan and spotted the man on the floor.
"I couldn't get in there really, but I got in there just enough to grab him by his arm and pull him closer to the window," Lane said.
Lane is out of work on disability and said his bad back and two bad shoulders prevented him from doing more. But by then, firefighters had arrived and were able to step in to get the victim out.
"He was right in this window here and he was holding his hand until the Fire Department got here," Murray said. "He tried to get him out, but there was no way anybody was getting in there other than the Fire Department."
This was not Lane's first rescue. In June 2004, Lane lived in Rochester and pulled two neighbors out of a burning home there.
"If I see myself in a jam, hopefully my neighbors would do the same thing," he said. "That's why you're here, to help everybody out. It's no biggie."
The victim, later identified by fire officials as Rand Thompson, remains in critical condition.
Fire investigators said the cause of the fire was smoking materials that were improperly disposed that set the couch on fire.
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