Passer-by stopped, alerted tenants to fire, and carried two children to safety

Nov. 19--During the day, 39-year-old Raji Gupta teaches mathematics at Bedford High School.

Early Wednesday morning, his superpowers came to life as he scampered up the stairway of a burning West Side apartment building, frantically pounding on doors and bringing children to safety.

Gupta stepped forward Wednesday as the bystander whom police credit with helping to rouse and evacuate residents of a burning six-family building.

Gupta said he didn't even think when he saw an orange glow on the exterior porch at 624 Rimmon St. He stopped his car, got out and, with a stranger, started banging on doors and running up exterior stairs that fronted the building.

"There were people in the building and we needed to get them out," Gupta said. "I knew I had to keep banging. People would be worried someone was trying to break into their home."

Authorities said no one was seriously hurt in the fire, but the building was badly damaged.

Monique Halle said she woke with a start when someone loudly banged on her apartment door.

"We were scared. We thought someone was breaking into the apartment," said Halle, 46, standing with roommates Kevin Dunham, 50, and Robert Harris, 47, across from their now uninhabitable building.

They made it to safety, although Dunham, who has a heart condition, was taken to the hospital to be evaluated for smoke inhalation.

About a dozen people fled the burning building about 1:15 a.m., running into the street as temperatures dropped into the low 20s.

The blaze started on a third-floor porch and quickly spread to a crawl space under the roof of the six-unit building, said District Fire Chief Richard McGahey. Investigators have ruled that the improper disposal of smoking materials caused the blaze.

Manchester police credited Gupta and patrol officer David Labbe with notifying the residents. Labbe cleared five of the six apartments, police said.

Gupta said he reached the third floor and a parent handed off a 5-year-old child, whom Gupta ran down and handed off to a woman. He returned and took a 1-year-old from the parent and brought that child down.

Roomates, from left, Devin Dunham, 50, Monique Halle, 46, and Robert Harris, 47, stand across the street from their apartment at 624 Rimmon St., the site of a three-alarm fire Wednesday morning. Halle was reunited with only one of her seven cats, which included four kittens she believed perish in the blaze. She held out hope that her two other cats survived and will be found in what's left of their apartment. (PAT GROSSMITH/STAFF)

Eventually, a police officer told him to stay away from the building, he said.

He said he didn't call 911, believing it was important to rouse the residents as quickly as possible.

"Life is valuable. If you can help someone else, you should do it," Gupta said.

The building had undergone several renovations, resulting in multiple ceilings where flames hid, McGahey said.

Firefighters took nearly 2 1/2 hours to get the fire under control, containing the fire damage to the third floor. The first and second floors suffered smoke and water damage. McGahey said the displaced tenants will be out of the building for a considerable amount of time.

Halle and her roommates do not have insurance, she said. She said Red Cross volunteers arrived about 3 a.m. and are helping residents temporarily.

McGahey estimated the damage at $150,000 to $200,000. The owner is listed as Joseph A. St. Cyr in the city's online assessor's database. The structure, built in 1910, is assessed at $329,100.

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