{"id":230040,"date":"2026-06-28T02:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T02:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/230040\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T02:41:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T02:41:25","slug":"good-memories-there-locals-mourn-loss-of-historic-allentown-building-after-6-alarm-fire-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/230040\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Good memories there’: Locals mourn loss of historic Allentown building after 6-alarm fire | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The old furniture factory on North Front Street ravaged by a fire Wednesday night is in the middle of being torn down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

‘A range of emotions’: Old factory building that went up in flames is coming down, as demolition gets underway in Allentown<\/a><\/p>\n

And while the rain paused the rest of its demolition on Saturday, many are already mourning its loss.<\/p>\n

Lydia Rodriguez grew up in one of the houses directly across from the large building that caught fire on North Front Street Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

“To know that everything is practically gone,” she said. “And it’s sad.”<\/p>\n

Three days later, some, Like Rodriguez’s parents, are still waiting to be able to go home.<\/p>\n

“Right now I’m waiting for Red Cross and United Way,” Rodriguez said. “They’re assessing.”<\/p>\n

The fire began at a former furniture factory, before spreading to several homes across the street<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The memories symbolize that, wow, it’s gone,” Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

But Lydia Rodriguez isn’t only mourning the loss of her childhood home.<\/p>\n

On Friday, demolition of that large, ruined building began.<\/p>\n

“I am very sad,” Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez’s dad worked there, back when it was known as Bethlehem Furniture Company.<\/p>\n

“Every floor I walked through it when I was little with my dad, coming in for break, I would walk in there with him,” she said. “And I look now and it’s like, wow. There’s no more memories to look at.”<\/p>\n

“We’re going to miss that building,” Luis Luna said. “Every time I pass every day, and I always look that place, and I have good memories there.”<\/p>\n

For Luna, the building was a symbol of opportunity.<\/p>\n

“When I come from Puerto Rico,” he said, “I started working in ’89 for about three years. It was my first job in Pennsylvania.”<\/p>\n

The job brought Luna to Allentown from New Jersey. He fell in love with the Lehigh Valley, and later opened up his very own bakery on West Linden Street.<\/p>\n

“Allentown, it’s a good place to live,” he said, “even though some sad things happen, but it’s a good place to be.”<\/p>\n

Two kids now face charges in connection with the fire, including arson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

+4
\n DA: Two juveniles in custody, charged for massive 6-alarm factory fire in Allentown<\/a><\/p>\n

“I am shocked to know that it’s juveniles,” Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what happened,” Luna said. “What is in their mind to do that?”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, officials continue to actively investigate.<\/p>\n

“We don’t know the extent,” Rodriguez said. “What really happened, how it happened.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The old furniture factory on North Front Street ravaged by a fire Wednesday night is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,232,153,155,154],"class_list":["post-230040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown-area","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230040","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=230040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}