NEWPORT – A former Nokomis Regional High School student was being called a hero Monday after he died in a New Hampshire fire while trying to rescue his younger brother.

A firefighter also died in Saturday’s fire, which displaced three Manchester, N.H., families and was blamed on an overloaded extension cord.

Patrick Flannery, 17, formerly from the Etna-Dixmont area, was overcome by smoke after he rushed back into the building to rescue Mathew Flannery, 12.

Manchester firefighter David Anderson, 43, died outside the building after he found the two unconscious boys and helped carry them out of the building.

Patrick was found on the kitchen floor of his apartment and his younger brother was found at the bottom of a set of attic stairs. The two boys and a third brother, Jon, 16, reportedly slept in the attic.

Mathew Flannery was in critical condition at the Boston Shriners Burn Institute on Monday, according to fire investigators.

Jon Flannery, the boys’ mother, Bea Flannery, her fiance, Ken Bradford, and five other residents of the three-family apartment house escaped unharmed.

Nokomis teacher Karen Wagner had Flannery in her freshman transition class for two years.

She remembered him Monday as “a really sweet kid. He was very devoted to his family. His dad had died a while ago and he had sort of taken over that role. I am not surprised” he went back into the burning building. “It is something he would do.”

Wagner said the transition program “is designed to ease students into the bigness of Nokomis.” She described Flannery as a talented artist “who wouldn’t wear his glasses. He had beautiful curly hair and a warm, wonderful smile. He was simply a nice, nice boy.”

Students who knew Flannery will not be returning from Christmas vacation until next week, said Nokomis Principal Dan Mills.

“Most of the immediacy of crisis intervention will have passed,” he said. “But we will identify the students that were Patrick’s friends and make counseling available.”