Photos: Firefighter, Others Injured in Three-Alarm Blaze in Easton, PA
The Express-Times
(TNS)
A fast-moving fire gutted the Hotel Hampton rooming house across from the State Theatre on Friday in Downtown Easton.
Firefighters rescued multiple people from windows in the five-story building at 462 Northampton St.
Three-story additions onto the building extended to Pine Street in the rear, with smoke and flames pouring out of the entire structure as firefighters worked to bring the blaze under control.
A firefighter from Wilson Borough was injured and taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem Township, according to Easton Deputy Fire Chief/Fire Marshal Chad Gruver. Numerous departments from the Easton area and as far as Lower Saucon Township responded.
Northampton County Emergency Management and the American Red Cross Pennsylvania Rivers Chapter were on the scene of the three-alarm fire. A Red Cross spokeswoman said responders were still working late Friday afternoon for a count of how many people were displaced and in need of assistance.
Al Pierson, who has lived there for a year, said about 50 people called the Hampton home.
“We heard a noise, a crackling noise coming out of the basement,” he told lehighvalleylive.com. “And then all of a sudden the smoke started coming up.”
He got out safely and helped to make sure others did, too, he said outside a warming center set up inside an annex of the State Theatre.
Friday night’s performance of “Riverdance 30” at the venerable venue was canceled because of the fire. Some 3,500 properties lost power temporarily due to the fire, and several businesses closed for the day.
“Our fire department, the other fire departments did an amazing job,” Easton City Councilman Frank Pintabone said at the scene. “The professionalism was amazing. All the fire departments that assisted us today did great.”
Firefighters were initially dispatched about 10:45 a.m. for an electrical fire in the basement of the building, according to Gruver, although the cause and point of origin remained under investigation.
“We’re right around the corner,” Gruver said, with the Central Fire Station just a block away at North Sixth and Northampton streets. “Guys got to work quickly, got water on what they thought was the major part of the fire. Unbeknownst to us, it was already well ahead of us throughout the building.”
Maria Baron was evacuated from a next-door building due to the fire and said she expects it’ll be a couple of days before she can return home.
The Hotel Hampton itself sustained extensive damage.
“We had a lot of people that were entrapped, hanging out windows that needed rescue,” Gruver said, noting the rescues and extension of the fire complicated the call.
One man could be seen with a medical mask partially covering his face, leaning out from a fourth-story window as smoke billowed around him. A firefighter scaled a metal ladder to assist him in crawling out of the window and down to the sidewalk.
“We were able to rescue about five or six individuals, some people self-rescued, but we actually took out about five or six individuals through windows,” Gruver said. “Some of the residents were able to get out through the fire escape or through the front of the building prior to our arrival. But when we showed up, we had some people that were basically stuck in their room, sheltering in place by the window until we could get a ladder to get them out that way.
“There’s too much smoke in the hallways throughout the entire building to be able to get them taken through the hallway.”
Firefighters continued to pour water onto and into the building past 4 p.m.
“We still have hot spots throughout the building,” Gruver said late Friday afternoon. “The difficulty is because of collapsing and partial collapses and the inability for us to get in safely to move things around, it’s difficult to get it completely contained and extinguished.
“So we’re going to be here for quite a while, and we’re going to need some heavy equipment to start moving stuff around.”
View more photos from Friday’s fire.
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit lehighvalleylive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.