SEABROOK — One young man is dead and four others fortunate to have escaped with their lives, after fire ripped through a home at 41 Collins St. early Saturday morning.

Charles "Chaz" Hewitt, 20, died in the fire that consumed the two-story house he was living in with his friends.

Making it out after waking to find the home ablaze are John Sears, 21, Matthew Hetticher, 21, and Kaleb Brown, 21, who lived in the house, and Joseph Wood, 19, 944 Lafayette Road, Seabrook. None of the survivors was hospitalized, although some were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.

The house, owned by Kaleb Brown's father Robert Brown, is a black, charred ruin, attesting to the heat of the blaze and the speed at which it tore through the house.

Hewitt worked at Brown's Lobster Pound and Restaurant, a Seabrook landmark owned by Bruce Brown Sr., and he had quickly become a favorite with his co-workers.

"I don't think I ever saw him without a smile on his face," said Bruce Brown Jr. "I'm just so upset about this boy's death. He was such a nice young man."

According to others, Hewitt's good nature endeared him to many at Brown's in the short time he was there.

"You know, you didn't have to talk to him very long to realize what a nice guy he was," said Dwight Souther, who worked with Hewitt. "He'd do anything you asked him to do. And when he saw me with my 1-year-old son once, he came over and played with him. You don't find a lot of guys that age who'll take time with young children like that. But Chaz did. This is awful."

According to Deputy Police Chief Lee Bitomske, a number of 911 calls came in from neighbors and the house's occupants just before 4 a.m. on Saturday morning. Police and firefighters reached the scene within moments, he said, and found the building fully involved.

"When we got to here there was heavy smoke everywhere and flames were coming out of three sides and the rear of the house on the first floor," said Seabrook fire Capt. Stanley Saracy. "We heard in the commotion from the bystanders that there could still be one person left inside the building. They said on the second floor in the bedrooms."

But firefighters didn't find anyone in the second floor during their initial search. It wasn't until they were knocking down the flames roaring through the first floor that they found the victim.

"He had probably been overcome from the smoke — that can happen very quickly," Saracy said. "He was trying to get out."

The state fire marshal and medical examiner are called automatically when a fire takes a life and were at the scene for hours Saturday. Hewitt's body was taken to Concord, said Seabrook fire Chief Jeff Brown, where an autopsy will be performed sometime on Monday.

Seabrook police and fire officers and the fire marshal searched the fire scene for hours, collecting evidence that could hopefully lead them to determine the cause of the blaze. But it will all take time, according to the fire chief.

"We don't know anything yet," Brown said. "We've just started digging around. It's too soon to know the cause. This is the first fatal fire we've had in town in about eight years, I think. State Fire Marshal Bill Clark is the lead investigator on the case."

Brown said Seabrook cleared the station to fight the fire, sending engines and its ladder along with an ambulance. Hampton Fire Department and Amesbury also provided mutual aid.

Neighbor Phyllis Perkins said she was awakened early Saturday morning by the sound of what she thought was a car door slamming.

"When I looked out my window and I saw all the flames," Perkins said, "so I called 911."

Others said they heard loud popping noises, all of which Brown said could have been the sound of the windows on the first floor bursting from the heat.

Next door neighbor Maryann Frascone said she didn't hear anything until the Fire Department arrived. And she said there hadn't been any problems in the neighborhood caused by the young men living in the home.

"Bobby Brown's son Kaleb has been living there with a few of his friends," Frascone said. "We've never heard anything before. There's been no problem. They're quiet."

Dozens of cars lined both sides of the street near the Seabrook Police Station yesterday morning as police and the fire marshal spent most of Saturday interviewing the survivors and some of their friends, trying to piece together the cause of the tragedy.