By Clynton Namuo
The Union Leader
LEE, N.H. — Clad in hospital scrubs, crutches under his arms, Herb Summers hobbled around outside the remains of his apartment yesterday afternoon rummaging through old garbage in search of what was left of his life.
“Hallelujah,” he screamed as he uncovered a pair of denim shorts and the wallet containing all the money he had.
It was a small win in a day full of losses.
Summers awoke around 5:30 yesterday morning to find his second-floor apartment next door to town hall at 5 Mast Road in flames, the living room where he was sleeping choked by smoke. The only stairway out was burning.
He darted to his 6-year-old daughter, Kiara, and his 4-year-old son, Caleb, who were asleep in the bedroom. But there was no exit. So he created one.
“I wouldn’t have thrown them out the window, but if it came down to it we’re jumping out that window,” he said.
Instead, Summers said he punched through a window, cutting his left forearm in the process. He put one leg out and then jumped more than 15 feet to the ground. He was so pumped full of adrenaline he didn’t even realize he had just broken his heel.
He grabbed a nearby ladder, and threw it against the building.
“I definitely remember running up that ladder and I felt no pain,” he said.
Just as he was heading out of the apartment, he threw his cell phone and wallet out the window. With Caleb wrapped around his neck and Kiara in one arm, he descended to safety.
“At this point, there’s blood everywhere,” he said.
Summers carried his kids to his next-door neighbor’s house and asked them to call 911. Almost as soon as he put the children down, he realized his foot was throbbing and he couldn’t put any weight on it. But his kids were safe and could stay with their mother, where they normally live.
He seemed dejected as he returned to the home later yesterday after getting his foot wrapped in a cast and his arm fixed up. He said he didn’t have much left. A friend searched for his wallet and came up with only his cell phone, depressing Summers more.
All that melted away when he found that wallet. He said he planned to buy some clothes.
Firefighters battled the blaze for more than an hour yesterday morning and had to shut off power to the building and town hall, which closed for much of the day.
The fire went to four alarms as firefighters from a dozen towns were called in because of a lack of water. The entire second floor was gutted and the first floor had severe water and smoke damage.
Chief Michael Blake said the fire apparently began at the top of the only enclosed stairway.
“We know that it’s not intentional,” Blake said of the fire, noting the exact cause has not been determined, though electrical, gas or furnace problems were ruled out.
Summers was the only one living in the two-story building. A business downstairs, Buster’s Place, closed last month and a second apartment upstairs was unoccupied.
Ed Bannister bought the building about five years ago and lives across the street. He said he was horrified when he awoke to police lights and saw the building ablaze. He ran across the street to tell emergency workers about Summers living there, but by then Summers had made it out safely.
Neighbors marveled at Summers’s story and the smoldering wreckage yesterday.
“He’s a hero,” next-door neighbor Bonnie Winona MacKinnon said of Summers. “He saved his children.”
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