BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The nearly six-hour process of quelling last week's fire at an apartment and retail complex and safely rounding up its 135 residents was “a textbook operation for fire ground operations,” the city's fire chief said.
But as Bethlehem's population grows and dozens of high-occupancy apartment buildings are being built, the city needs to examine its preparedness to fight such fires, Bethlehem Fire Chief Reich told City Council on Tuesday.
Last week’s four-alarm fire at Five10 Flats on East Third Street was the city’s eighth of its kind in the past 25 years, officials said.
“They did an amazing job at what they do best, and that is helping people."Bethlehem Fire Chief Michael Reich
No injuries were reported, and residents were provided temporary hotel accommodations.
“They did an amazing job at what they do best, and that is helping people,” Reich said.
Mayor J. William Reynolds, commended the fire force and others on hand that day.
“It truly was, I would use the word ‘impressive,’ as far as the readiness, as far as the personnel was concerned," Reynolds said.
Details of the operation
Here’s Reich’s rundown of the fire’s city and area mutual-aid response he provided to council:
- 87 firefighters on site, including 41 from the city department (18 were on duty that day, along with two lieutenant inspectors, Reich and Deputy Fire Chief Craig Baer; 19 personnel were called in from home)
- Seven city paramedics and 15 city police officers (Two of the officers, identified by the police department as Josh Hobson and Andrew Wirth, carried a wheelchair-dependent resident down five flights of stairs to safety)
- Eight personnel from Allentown Fire with a ladder truck
- Seven members of Bethlehem Township Fire, six from Easton F.D. and three from Hanover Township Northampton County Volunteer F.D.
- Lower Saucon Fire Rescue, four members; Nancy Run Fire Company, six members with an air truck to fill breathing devices; and Palmer Municipal F.D., 10 members
- Northampton Community College Public Safety, as the nearby Fowler Center served as a temporary emergency operations center
- Representatives from the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, housing inspectors and five Health Bureau staff members
- Lehigh-Northampton Transportation Authority provided a bus, driver and supervisor to move residents to temporary housing
- Local Red Cross chapter, three members; Lehigh Valley CART provided temporary on-site kennel services (all residents’ animals accounted for and safe).
'We remain committed'
Lou Jimenez, president of the Bethlehem firefighters’ union Local 735, said he’s been actively working side-by-side with the fire department leadership to find meaningful ways to improve staffing.
According to a May 3 Facebook post from Local 735, “at one time, the Bethlehem Fire Department was staffed with over 112 personnel.
“Today, even as the city’s population grows and dozens of high-occupancy apartment buildings have been built, we are operating with fewer than 100 personnel.
"Our former minimum staffing level of 22 firefighters per shift was revoked by an arbitrator in 2012.”
Last year, the city sent 16 people for fire academy training. There’s been eight more sent so far this year, and six are planned to go for the following class.
The city hasn’t arranged for two academy classes in one year in three decades, the chief said.
“With more multi-occupancy apartment buildings being built in our growing city, we must make safety a priority across all public safety departments."Lou Jimenez, president of the IAFF Local 735
“We remain committed to working collaboratively to strengthen our department, support our members and provide the level of service that our community not only expects but deserves,” Jimenez said.
He said better outfitting the city’s station at 1165 Catasauqua Road, among other locations, will be “essential to ensure safe, effective and timely response when minutes matter most in a growing area.”
“With more multi-occupancy apartment buildings being built in our growing city, we must make safety a priority across all public safety departments,” Jimenez said.
“One immediate priority has become clear: It’s the need to properly staff our North West Fire Station, Engine 9, with one fire officer and two firefighters every hour of every day across all four platoons.
"Our staffing needs to be increased in other areas as well.”
The chief said he wanted the city to consider allocating funds for geographical information systems study on department staffing, offering a third-party look at what’s in store for building out the department’s rank-and-file.
What's next
It’s not yet determined how long it may take before officials will let residents and owners of the seven affected ground-level businesses back into the building, city Chief Building Inspector Mike Simonson said.
Restaurants on the ground floor had to throw out their food, officials said.
“The fire was on the roof, and the water damage, or the water applied by the fire department, didn’t saturate the entire building down to the first floor,” Simonson said.
“So the commercial spaces aren’t as taxed as the upper residential units.
“I firmly believe that they will be opening before a lot of the apartments.”
“We’ve had some heavy rains over the last couple of days, which kind of hampered the ability to dry it out as fast as we would have liked. But we anticipate power back in the building within the next few days, maybe a week or so.”Bethlehem Chief Building Inspector Mike Simonson
For now, Simonson said, it’s a matter of going floor-by-floor and room-by-room to see what can be done to get the power back on, and remove walls and ceilings to get the place dried out.
“We’ve had some heavy rains over the last couple of days, which kind of hampered the ability to dry it out as fast as we would have liked,” Simonson said.
“But we anticipate power back in the building within the next few days, maybe a week or so.”
As the fire started on the rooftop and mostly affected just the uppermost level of the five-story building, a property restoration company has been tasked with applying temporary roofing materials to protect the interior from the elements for now.
“I think it’s one of those things, when we look back on it, that we’ll all kind of remember where we were."Bethlehem City Council President Michael Colón
“I live pretty close and seeing the ash spread around South Bethlehem — it was something to see,” Councilwoman Rachel Leon said.
Council President Michael Colón said, “I think it’s one of those things, when we look back on it, that we’ll all kind of remember where we were."
Councilwoman Colleen Laird said, “It certainly seemed like a situation where when there’s something bad going on, you look for the helpers, as Mr. Rogers says — and there were many of them that day.”
