A father of two young girls on Tuesday became the sixth victim of the deadly fire early Saturday in Portland, making the blaze the state’s worst in 40 years.
Steven Summers died late Tuesday afternoon after fighting for his life at Massachusetts General Hospital since suffering severe burns in the fire.
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Summers, 29, of Rockland and originally from Alexandria, Va., had jumped from the second story of 20-24 Noyes St., where witnesses saw him rolling on the street trying to extinguish the flames early Saturday. He was visiting friends for Halloween. Summers’ wife confirmed his death Tuesday evening.
“He was just the most outgoing, active person, very charismatic,” said his wife, Ashley Summers, 25, of Rockland. She said they have two daughters, 5-year-old Audryn and 3-year-old, Maliyah.
Summers said her husband’s burns were so critical that he was taken off life support early Tuesday morning. He started breathing on his own and lived for an additional 13 hours.
Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a statement on Tuesday that Summers passed away at 5:29 p.m.
The other fire victims died at the scene from smoke inhalation. They were identified by authorities on Monday as Maelisha Jackson, 26, of Topsham, and Chris Conlee, 25, of Portland, who were both visiting the house; and David Bragdon Jr., 27, Ashley Thomas, 29, and Nicole Finlay, 26, who were residents. The State Medical Examiner’s Office was still working to confirm Finlay’s identity.
McCausland said that Summers’ death makes the Portland fire the state’s deadliest in 40 years. A mother and six children died in a house fire in Eagle Lake on Nov. 20, 1974.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Tuesday by the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Portland Fire Department, and members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, McCausland said.
A vigil for the fire victims is tentatively planned for Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 6 p.m. The vigil will begin at the Noyes Street house and proceed to Longfellow Park, where participants will gather to memorialize those affected by the fire, according to Carol Schiller, president of the University Neighborhood Organization.
Witnesses said Summers escaped the fire by jumping from a second-floor window.
“He used to run half-marathons. He was very strong, very fit and very able,” his wife said. “His doctors said they have never seen a person survive those types of burns for as long as he did.”
Ashley Summers said her husband had been employed for about a year as a customer service representative at Boston Financial in Rockland.
Summers grew up in the Washington, D.C., area, graduating in 2003 from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. He joined the Navy in 2005 and eventually was deployed to the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, where he met his future wife. They had a whirlwind courtship and married in March 2008, three weeks after they met.
“We got matching tattoos. We were just kids, crazy in love,” Ashley Summers said.
During his time with the Navy, Summers served overseas in Japan and Guam, among other places.
When he left the military, Summers earned a degree in justice administration from the University of Maine in Augusta.
A close friend of the couple, Paul Odirrag, created a fundraising campaign to help pay for Summers’ medical bills and to support his two children.
The campaign was started on the gofundme.com fundraising website. Attempts to reach Odirrag were unsuccessful.
Odirrag wrote a tribute to his friend on the website.
“We all know Steven is a fighter and to imagine the drive and determination he had to make it out of a burning room unable to breathe or see while completely covered in flames is incredible and an understatement of Steve’s will to live,” Odirrag wrote. “Steven Summers is first and foremost a father of two beautiful girls.”
Summers’ wife, Ashley, said he was a good father.
“I’ve got to figure out a way to explain to the girls what happened to their father,” she said.
Dennis Hoey can be reached at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
Joe Lawlor can be reached at 791-6376 or at:
jlawlor@pressherald.com
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