City worker catches man as he jumps out of his burning apartment with his pets

By Arielle Mitropoulos, Krizia Williams

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    FRANKLIN, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A young man is OK after he jumped out of a window when a fire began to tear through his apartment building in Franklin.

Multiple fire crews responded to the scene Tuesday on East Bow Street around 6 p.m

Blake McInerney said when he saw smoke pouring into his apartment, he knew he had little time to act.

“I opened the front door, all the black smoke just piled through, so I knew I couldn’t get out that way,” he said. “I just started screaming because I could see people on the streets. There’s one really nice guy that came over, and he climbed up half the roof, and he grabbed the cats down for me.”

McInerney said he broke open a window and jumped after the smoke became too much to handle.

“The smoke was getting too hard to breathe, so I jumped out after the guy helped me down,” he said.

According to Franklin Fire Chief Michael Foss, a city worker caught McInerney from the ground.

“We had three people jumping from the second floor. One was being assisted by a city worker who actually was able to help catch one of the individuals,” Foss said.

McInerney’s girlfriend, Ava Gallagher, and his mother, Morgan McInerney, who live with him, rushed home when they heard what happened.

“I yelled to my manager, ‘My house is on fire,’ and just ran out the front door,” Gallagher said.

“Instantly, I started crying and he’s like ‘The fires really bad,'” Morgan McInerney said.

The family is physically doing OK, as is their dog, Boston, who was stuck inside the apartment during the fire.

They’re now waiting to learn how much they have lost after just starting over, though Foss said that it appears as though the apartment may be a total loss.

“This is our first apartment that we got together. I went into recovery, I paid for it on my own,” Morgan McInerney said.

“I feel like it’s just one thing after another right now,” Gallagher said.

The family has launched a GoFundMe during this difficult time.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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