GRANTHAM — A 28-year-old Grantham man has a long recovery ahead after suffering severe burns in a house fire last week.

Zachary Beaulieu remains in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he was taken following the Jan. 15 fire and has undergone a series of surgeries since.

“His hands took it hard,” his grandmother, Donna Beaulieu, said Wednesday.

Beaulieu is a welder, and as he undergoes a procedure on his hands this week, he and his family are anxious about nerve damage limiting his ability to work.

Beaulieu sustained the burns when he mistakenly thought that his girlfriend, Becca Wheeler, and the couple’s dog were still inside the burning house they shared. He went back in to find them and later jumped from a second-story window to escape the fire. Wheeler and the dog were not in the house and both are doing fine, Donna Beaulieu said this week. Wheeler is living with her parents in Springfield, N.H.

The house at 505 Route 10 South — across from a public park and about a mile from Exit 13 on Interstate 89 — was completely destroyed, Donna Beaulieu said. The house belonged to her and her husband, Normand, and had an assessed value of $180,400. The home was insured, but they don’t intend to rebuild, she said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, the New Hampshire Fire Marshal’s office said Thursday.

Zachary Beaulieu remains on a feeding tube due to burns to the back of his throat and mouth, but he is awake and able to visit with his parents, Jen and David, of Grantham, who travel to Boston regularly to see him, Donna Beaulieu said. It is unclear how long he will remain hospitalized.

A GoFundMe page has been created to help with Beaulieu’s medical expenses. It had raised $15,180 of a $20,000 goal as of Thursday afternoon.

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.