NH Fallen Firefighters Memorial Adds Four Names, 3 From Seacoast

Three Seacoast firefighters who died in the line of duty were among four names added Saturday to the New Hampshire Fallen Firefighters Memorial.

The names of Chief James Smith of Dover, Lt. Earnest Leblanc of Dover, Cpt. Steve Tower of Goffstown and Chief Darin Sabine of Newington were engraved onto stone tablets during Saturday's ceremony in Concord. Roses were placed on the tablets

Smith was inside a building in Dover in 1925 searching for the source of a gas leak when an explosion blew a plug from a telephone wire conduit into the chief's head knocking him over and killing him, according to FireEngineering.com.

Earnest Leblanc died in 1959 while on duty extinguishing a fire with the Dover Fire Department.  Steve Tower, 54, a captain with the Goffstown Fire Department become ill during a Candidate Physical Ability Test in 2020 at the NH Fire Academy in Concord.

Late Newington Fire Chief Darin Sabine, 35, passed away on September 7, 2019 after a two-year battle against job-related colon cancer.

The Tunnel to Tower Foundation in July paid off the mortgage on his family's home.

The memorial was dedicated in 2006 with a yearly memorial service scheduled the last Sunday in September.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH