EASTON, Pa. – We have several updates Wednesday night on a fire that tore through the Hotel Hampton in Downtown Easton last month.
Some buildings have a date with the wrecking ball. In the meantime, a resource center which has helped people with low-low interest loans closes Thursday.
Over the last five weeks, Larry Ward Sr.’s prospects have turned from a burned-out room at the Hotel Hampton, to a bright, newly renovated apartment at Shilor Manor on Easton’s South Side.
“I think about (that fire) all the time. Knowing that I could have been in my room sleeping,” recalled Ward, Sr.
Immediately after the fire, Ward, Sr. turned to the Disaster Loan Outreach Center, looking for clothing and bathroom supplies. He also got $85 dollars for glasses, and a $225 dollar debit card.
“You’re down so you don’t have all the things you need,” Ward, Sr. said.
The Disaster Loan Outreach Center closes Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Easton Mayor Sal Panto says the loans didn’t prove to be very popular, but other services did, such as replacing personal papers.
“People forget, ‘Why do those people need it?’ Well, they need their licenses, birth certificates, documents they had which just went up in flames,’ said Easton Mayor Sal Panto.
Mayor Panto says the two additions in the back of the Hotel Hampton will be demolished next week. An engineers’ report, due out next week, will determine if the Hotel Hampton itself can be saved.
Mayor Panto plans to address city council Wednesday evening, saying he’s upset that it took MetEd two hours to cut the power the day of the fire. Panto says that lapse endangered the lives of 11 firefighters that day.
“I will not go to the funeral of a firefighter because of MetEd. I’m not going to do it,” insisted Mayor Panto.
Of the 67 displaced residents, Panto says about 6 of them still staying at local churches. But with the help of Shiloh Manor, Easton Senior Housing and Easton Housing Authority, people like Ward, Sr. are able to look to the future.
“I feel like I can grow here,” said Ward, Sr.