EASTON, Pa. — A boarding house destroyed in a three-alarm fire in February — leaving dozens displaced and a firefighter seriously injured during rescue efforts — had not undergone fire inspections since at least 2017, according to a newly completed federal investigation.
That was despite a history of code violations, fire alarm problems and prior safety concerns, the investigation found.
Easton firefighters had asked city officials for years for authority to conduct those inspections themselves, but those requests were not granted, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report on the Feb. 20 fire at the Hotel Hampton.
A copy of the report was obtained by LehighValleyNews.com prior to its public release.
Easton City Administrator Luis Campos did not dispute the findings, but said late Wednesday afternoon the administration will review the report, including its recommendations, and will meet with the fire department, codes department and other involved offices.
Campos also said the city will be “fact checking the document,” arguing some operational issues may have been summarized "at too much of a high level.”
“There have been a series of inspections and violations in the Hotel Hampton over the last 10 years, so the codes department has been in there,” Campos said as part of the statement.
“There is room for improvement and the fire department has been conducting their pre-safety inspections — they’ve managed about 518 inspections in the city and they are required to do an inspection once every 21 days.
"But there’s ability to improve how the city conducts its inspections.”
Report: No inspections since 2017
The study found that, because of limited staffing, the city’s code enforcement office had not conducted fire inspections anywhere in the jurisdiction since 2017.
That included the Hotel Hampton, a five-story boarding house used for people experiencing homelessness and temporary housing, where dozens of residents were living at the time of the fire.
The report indicates several annual and complaint inspections in the building between 1990 and 2008, along with a cause and origin investigation in 2008 following a fire in the building.
At that time, the investigation found a smoke detector wrapped in plastic bags to prevent activation as a resident was cooking in their room using a hotplate.
Records reviewed by investigators also showed past inspections of the Hotel Hampton found windows to fire escapes nailed shut and nonfunctioning smoke detectors in hallways and bedrooms.
It also found fire doors propped open, missing stair railings and exit signs, as well as repeated complaints involving garbage, hoarding conditions, insect infestations and a malfunctioning fire alarm system.
“It is unknown if the fire alarm and detection systems were functional at the time of the current incident,” the report states.
LehighValleyNews.com filed a Right-to-Know request with the city March 23 seeking records tied to the Hotel Hampton property at 462 Northampton St., including certificates of occupancy, rooming house permits, inspection reports, code violations, complaints and renovation records.
The city initially responded by providing dozens of documents — including those tied to businesses on the first floor — but much of the request remained unfulfilled, prompting an appeal to Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records.
In its response to that appeal, the city argued many inspection and occupancy records were exempt from disclosure under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law because they were part of non-criminal investigations tied to code enforcement and permit approvals.
City officials also said no additional responsive records existed beyond what had already been produced.
Firefighter Mayday and rescue
Within its 30-page report, NIOSH heavily examined the incident in which Wilson firefighter Bobby Lewullis ran out of air while searching the smoke-filled building for residents needing rescue.
Lewullis became stranded on the fourth floor and radioed repeatedly for help before calling a Mayday, the report states.
It also states he removed his regulator, placed his hood over the facepiece connection to filter his breathing and hung his head out of a window while awaiting rescue before activating his personal alert safety system, or PASS — a life-safety device that automatically emits a high-decibel alarm to alert nearby firefighters when someone is incapacitated or trapped.
After more than 10 minutes without air, Lewullis climbed onto a ground ladder raised to his window, lost consciousness while descending and fell more than 20 feet to the ground, the report states.
He suffered a broken back and ankle, shoulder injuries and smoke inhalation injuries requiring oxygen therapy and hospital treatment, according to investigators.
They said he depleted a full air supply inside the building in about 15 minutes, with his EOSTI, or end-of-service time indicator, sounding as he tried to find a way out.
The report also detailed how the building’s construction played a major role in how quickly conditions deteriorated.
Residents had opened the basement door before firefighters arrived in an attempt to ventilate smoke, allowing additional oxygen into the structure, it said.
Firefighters then initially found what appeared to be a manageable basement electrical fire near an electric panel, with light smoke and little heat.
But once crews knocked down the basement fire, fresh air moved into concealed wall voids, feeding flames upward through the building’s balloon-frame construction — an older style in which wall cavities run continuously between floors.
That allowed fire to spread rapidly vertically through the structure, turning what began as a basement fire into active fire on upper floors and trapping residents above, according to the report.
NIOSH said the building’s maze-like layout, limited exits and heavy fuel load further complicated rescues and firefighting operations.
Compounding the danger, fellow firefighters and dispatchers missed multiple radio transmissions from Lewullis saying he was out of air, and the electric utility initially reported the building’s power had been remotely disconnected when it had not.
Later, during defensive operations, water from an aerial truck energized underground power lines, trapping firefighters on the apparatus until Met-Ed's utility crews shut power to the entire city, according to the report.
Contributing factors
NIOSH identified nine contributing factors to the spread of the fire and Lewullis’ injuries.
They include inadequate staffing, lack of pre-incident planning, missed radio transmissions, failures in utility shutoff and the absence of regular fire inspections.
The report found the initial fire response brought 15 personnel to what dispatch protocols classified as a high-occupancy building.
Investigators noted the department had no formal pre-incident plan for the building, despite firefighters being familiar with it from repeated EMS calls, overdoses and a prior mattress fire.
Among its recommendations, NIOSH said municipalities should partner with fire departments to enforce fire and life safety codes at high-risk occupancies such as boarding houses and ensure inspection programs are adequately staffed.
It also said public safety dispatch centers should have enough personnel to dedicate a dispatcher to major incidents and Mayday management.
The report repeatedly states Easton firefighters had requested authority to conduct fire inspections before the incident, but those requests were not granted.
“In the years preceding this incident, numerous requests for the fire department to complete fire inspections were made to the AHJ by Chief 20 but were not granted,” investigators wrote.
AHJ stands for Authority Having Jurisdiction, pointing to city officials as having denied the requests.
The cause of the fire ultimately was ruled undetermined.
The larger questions — why inspections stopped and who made that decision — remain for local officials to answer.
During a news conference at City Hall, both indirectly pointed to the Hotel Hampton fire as evidence of why stronger inspections were needed, while also saying plans for the new partnership were unrelated to the fire and had been more than a year in the making.
Now, as the unreleased NIOSH report details years of missed inspections and denied requests from firefighters to handle them, questions remain about when city leaders knew the system was failing — and why meaningful changes came only after a firefighter was seriously injured and dozens of residents were displaced.
Editor’s note: This story is based on a copy of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report obtained by LehighValleyNews.com before its public release. Comments from Easton Administrator Luis Campos were added and the story was updated late Wednesday afternoon.
