{"id":121904,"date":"2026-02-24T06:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/121904\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:11:09","slug":"i-dont-have-anything-easton-fire-survivors-struggle-after-losing-their-homes-easton-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/121904\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t have anything\u2019: Easton fire survivors struggle after losing their homes | Easton Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

EASTON, Pa. – “I don’t have ID. I don’t have anything. Can’t even get to my money. Don’t have a phone, don’t have anything,” lamented Joel Lodics.<\/p>\n

“I lived there for two and a half years. So that was my home, my sanity, my quiet place,” added Rebecca Hughes.<\/p>\n

35-year-old Rebecca Hughes and 66-year-old Joel Lodics are now homeless. They’re part of the 37 Red Cross overnight temporary shelter residents at Northampton Community College.<\/p>\n

This comes after Friday’s massive fire destroyed Easton’s Hotel Hampton<\/a>, displacing 40 adults. Included in the loss for Hughes is her dentures. For Lodics, it\u2019s his ID’s, car keys, and 3-year-old cat Jellybean.<\/p>\n

“I’m infuriated. I’m not upbeat at all. I’m like, going between, you know, like, grief and mourning and rage,” he said.<\/p>\n

Fire crews say the boarding house in the 400 block of Northampton St. is a total loss, impacting not only residents but nearby businesses.<\/p>\n

The adjacent Jois Boutique was damaged by smoke and soot. Precision Cuts Barbershop 2 was damaged extensively as well.<\/p>\n

The State Cafe and Grill was also forced to temporarily close, after water runoff from fighting the fire flooded the basement.<\/p>\n

There was one piece of better news. The Wilson Borough Fire Department says fireman Bobby Lewullis, who fell 20 feet<\/a>, and has been in the ICU, is expected to head home Monday.<\/p>\n

As for those like Hughes and Lodics, it wasn’t just shelter that burned, but a thin line between stability and starting over.<\/p>\n

“I don’t even have a phone, so I’m just kind of sitting here like a lump waiting to have a day where I can get down and start getting my, you know, life back together,” Lodics said.<\/p>\n

The cause of the fire still being investigated. The Red Cross continues to work with residents in finding new homes and will continue to run the shelter.<\/p>\n

As for Hughes, the one place she does have is work. But, due to the storm bus services being cancelled, she couldn’t make it. She says if she doesn’t work, she doesn’t get paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. – “I don’t have ID. I don’t have anything. Can’t even get to my money. Don’t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,28562,36507,57335,57340,12146,57338,57337,57339,57336],"class_list":{"0":"post-121904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-community-impact","12":"tag-displacement","13":"tag-easton-fire","14":"tag-firefighter-injury","15":"tag-homeless","16":"tag-hotel-hampton","17":"tag-northampton-community-college","18":"tag-property-loss","19":"tag-red-cross-shelter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}