{"id":253778,"date":"2026-07-28T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/253778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:00:06","slug":"financial-help-still-available-for-victims-of-muhlenberg-township-apartment-complex-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/253778\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial help still available for victims of Muhlenberg Township apartment complex fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Small Business Administration is reminding those affected by the fire at the Oak Forest apartment complex in Muhlenberg Township that they still have time to apply for financial assistance programs.<\/p>\n

Eligible businesses, private nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters have until Aug. 24 to apply for low-interest federal disaster loans to offset losses from the June 11 blaze, officials said in a release.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro announced<\/a> in June that the federal government had approved his request to make financial aid available to victims of the fire.<\/p>\n

The fire that broke out at the apartment complex at 2271 Hampden Blvd. just before 9 p.m. was ruled<\/a> accidental.\u00a0 The damage impacted 20 units and displaced more than 30 people.<\/p>\n

State police reported that the fire started due to an electrical issue in a void above the ceiling in one of the buildings. Troopers said the only ignition source found in the space was wiring and associated components.<\/p>\n

They said there was a storm that produced lightning in the area, but the buildings were not struck by lightning.<\/p>\n

Federal officials said businesses and private nonprofits are eligible to apply for business physical disaster loans and may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.<\/p>\n

Homeowners and renters are eligible to apply for home and personal property loans and may borrow up to $100,000 to replace or repair personal property, such as clothing, furniture, cars and appliances. Homeowners may apply for up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence.<\/p>\n

Applicants may also be eligible for a loan increase of up to 20% of their physical damage for mitigation purposes, officials said. Eligible mitigation improvements include strengthening structures to protect against high wind damage, upgrading to wind rated garage doors, and installing a safe room or storm shelter to help protect property and occupants from future damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne distinct advantage of SBA\u2019s disaster loan program is the opportunity to fund upgrades reducing the risk of future storm damage,\u201d said Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at SBA. \u201cI encourage businesses and homeowners to work with contractors and mitigation professionals to improve their storm readiness while taking advantage of SBA\u2019s physical damage loans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interest rates are as low as 4% for businesses, 3.625% for nonprofits, and 2.875% for homeowners and renters, with terms of up to 30 years. Interest does not begin to accrue, and payments are not due, until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement, officials said.<\/p>\n

To apply online, go to sba.gov\/disaster<\/a>. Applicants may also call the administration\u2019s customer service center at 800-659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance.<\/p>\n

Those with hearing or speech impairments are advised to call 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.<\/p>\n

Officials noted the deadline to file applications for physical property damage is Aug. 24 and the deadline to return economic injury applications is March 24. Officials said there is a 60-day grace period after the deadlines during which applications will be accepted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Small Business Administration is reminding those affected by the fire at the Oak Forest apartment complex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,182,973,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-253778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-local-news","tag-muhlenberg-township","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253778","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=253778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}