EASTON, Pa. — City officials on Tuesday defended the actions of firefighters during February’s Hotel Hampton fire, while acknowledging gaps in inspections, oversight and coordination identified in a federal investigation into the incident.
But throughout the lengthy City Council committee meeting, officials repeatedly blurred a central issue raised by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report: the difference between fire safety inspections, pre-fire planning and actual enforceable fire inspections.
“The fire department did a great job. Many, many lives were saved.”Easton City Administrator Luis Campos
Despite repeated references to inspections and safety reviews, officials acknowledged the city operated multiple overlapping systems — some focused on code enforcement, others on operational preparedness — that for years failed to consistently intersect at the Hampton.
The discussion centered on the recently released NIOSH report examining the Feb. 20 fire at the downtown building, which seriously injured a Wilson firefighter who suffered a broken back and ankle during the response.
Still, officials repeatedly emphasized that all 41 occupants survived.
“The fire department did a great job,” city Administrator Luis Campos said. “Many, many lives were saved.”
'Heavily altered boarding house'
City Fire Chief Henry Hennings described the Hampton as a “250-year old, heavily altered boarding house with 41 occupants inside.”
He said parts of the building dated to the 1700s, with numerous additions and alterations to the property, including hotel rooms later cut in half.
He said the city views the NIOSH findings as an opportunity to improve operations and coordination moving forward.
“The city of Easton welcomes the recommendations and views them as the opportunity to further strengthen its already strong operational foundation,” Hennings said.
Campos said the city has formally requested written reviews from both the fire department and Department of Planning and Codes regarding “operational practices, staffing, inspections, code enforcement responsibilities and implementation of corrective actions” identified in the federal report.
“These reviews are intended to provide an additional factual clarification and policy analysis for City Council and the public concerning matters identified within the NIOSH report,” Campos said.
'It was never stated'
At the center of the discussion was how the Hampton remained classified as a hotel for decades, despite functioning more like a long-term boarding house.
City Planning and Codes Director Dwayne Tillman said records dating to a 1977 certificate of occupancy consistently identified the property as a hotel.
“Every document that’s in that property folder notes it as being a hotel,” Tillman said.
“So at whatever portion or whatever time it transitioned to either probably a mixed or to all boarding house, it was never stated in the property folder.”
That classification exempted the building from the city’s rental inspection ordinance, which applies to boarding houses and single-room occupancies.
Councilman Frank Pintabone repeatedly questioned why the property never was reclassified, despite years of complaints and inspections.
“I believe the hotel umbrella they were under probably went away many, many years ago — probably 20 years ago,” Pintabone said.
“Why didn’t we switch that to a short-term rental, a rooming house, so it would follow the yearly inspections?”
Tillman acknowledged code officials had visited the building over the years for complaints involving bed bugs, roaches, a mattress fire and other issues.
“I just don’t know why it wasn’t put on the radar that it was being used that way,” he said.
Fire safety inspection vs. fire inspection
The meeting repeatedly returned to what kinds of inspections were — and were not — being conducted at the Hampton.
Tillman said Easton operated a fire safety inspection program from 2006 through 2014 before the retirement of a part-time inspector.
A formal fire safety inspection ordinance later was adopted in 2016, but inspections slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID hit, and it kind of went off the tracks,” Tillman said.
“For some time we were missing that portion of the inspection."Easton Planning and Codes Director Dwayne Tillman
Hennings separately explained that the fire department conducts “pre-fire plans” — operational walkthroughs intended to familiarize firefighters with building layouts, shutoffs, sprinkler systems and other emergency-response information.
The Hampton, however, did not have a pre-fire plan, Hennings said.
He said the department prioritizes inspections on a rotating basis because of the volume of buildings and contractual limits on staffing deployment time.
He also emphasized that while emergency response crews gather on-scene intelligence when responding to incidents, formal pre-fire planning is a slower, resource-limited process that can't realistically cover every occupied building in the city on a timely basis.
Later in the meeting, council members pressed officials on what gaps existed among rental inspections, fire safety inspections and actual fire inspections.
“So rental inspection is only capturing the fire line system, sprinkler system, extinguishers, emergency lights and things like that,” Tillman said.
“Now, if there's a commercial aspect to it, like a restaurant, the rental officers aren't going into the restaurant space.”
He later acknowledged the city had been missing portions of those inspections.
“For some time we were missing that portion of the inspection,” Tillman said.
'Done quietly without going through the proper channels'
The clearest distinction came when Tillman explained the difference between operational walkthroughs and enforceable inspections.
“The pre-planning is they're just going in and picking out where all the systems are, and they're not enforcing anything,” he said.
“The codes department is going in saying you're in violation of X, Y and Z. You need to fix X, Y and Z.”
"Just for me, when I hear building was heavily altered, I just kind of feel like it was done quietly without going through the proper channels."Easton City Councilman Ken Brown
Common checks during fire inspections also would include occupancy loads, hazardous conditions, existing permits and more.
"Just for me, when I hear building was heavily altered, I just kind of feel like it was done quietly without going through the proper channels," Councilman Ken Brown said.
Councilwoman Crystal Rose later called for “a full audit and ongoing reporting of the high-occupancy inspections, including the hotels, boarding and rooming houses” in the city.
Rose also asked the administration to provide quarterly updates until it catches up on inspections.
Officials said the city now is working to restart and expand inspections, prioritize high-risk occupancies and improve coordination between departments.
Tillman also repeated that Easton recently hired a third-party company to track annual fire system inspection reports from property owners and notify the city when buildings fall out of compliance.
Several council members also suggested revisiting the city ordinance that exempts hotels from rental inspection requirements.
“I think we should look at bringing the hotel under the same requirements as the regular rentals,” Pintabone said.
