ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A massive fire in south Allentown Monday left at least 15 people without a place to live. Two people were also sent to the hospital.
Lauryn Littlejohn says she had just put her one-year-old son down for a nap and started the laundry, when she noticed smoke outside. It was 12:30 p.m. on Labor Day Monday.
“I was just going to close the window, because I thought it was from a grill or something,” she said.
But Littlejohn quickly realized it wasn’t a grill, when she noticed a tower of flames coming from next door.
“Grabbed my son, grabbed my dog, just grabbed a few things and just got out,” she said.
Officials say the massive fire took well over an hour to put out. Five row houses are now uninhabitable, they say, and at least 15 people are displaced. One resident and one firefighter were taken to the hospital and six firefighters were treated for exhaustion.
“The first two units here, they’re more of exterior damage, the back patio,” Assistant fire chief Mike Zellin with Fire Prevention at the Allentown Fire Dept., said. “The lower level of the homes, they’re pretty extensive the damage.”
Zellin had the day off for Labor Day, but says the fire was still raging in the back and along the roof line when he arrived.
“Probably a good hour we were here and they were still putting fire out in the rear,” he said.
Zellin says he’s not sure who called the fire in, but it seemed it may have been called in a little late.
“There was a lot of damage so it looked like it was burning pretty well before we were notified,” he said.
Littlejohn says after rushing out of her home, she could better see the magnitude of the fire.
“I came out and turned around and there was a huge pillar of smoke coming from the back and you could see flames it was just huge,” she said. “More than what I saw in the back.”
Now Littlejohn waits to learn the extent of damage.
“Just trying to think of all the stuff that was in the house that, can we not get, how much is damaged. That’s the scary part, I don’t know.”
PPL came to asses a power outage affecting 12 homes, in addition to the five damage by the fire. PPL tells 69 News it was likely a blown fuse from melted wires. Power was restored to those unaffected homes shortly after 5 p.m.
“To see that it spread to the other homes too, so rapidly, was kind of shocking,” Kirk Joseph said. Joseph drove up from his home in New Jersey when he learned about the fire. He says it’s his uncle who remains hospitalized.
“He’s suffering from burns. So, I’m assuming it’s bad,” he said.
A fire marshal took Joseph inside his uncle’s home.
“It’s bad,” he said. “I was surprised to see how fast it spread throughout the whole house, I mean, it’s nothing left.”
“It was very, very large, very, it was horrible,” neighbor, Mariel Claudio said. “I mean I thought all these houses were going to catch on fire.”
Claudio’s home was so close to the others that caught on fire, that even though she wasn’t displaced, she says she didn’t want to stay in her home for the night.
“I don’t know if we’re going to sleep tonight,” she said. “Honestly I might stay in my son’s house.”
Claudio described the terrifying moment she first saw the fire from her window.
“When I looked, the car and the house was on fire,” she said. “I just started screaming, we grabbed the kids. My daughter grabbed my granddaughter. Just grabbed her out the bathtub and we just ran out, it was just crazy.”
“I’ve already had an emotional breakdown, Lauryn Littlejohn said. “So I’m just kind of in shock right now.”
Littlejohn says despite the trauma of it all, she felt the power of the community, coming to her family’s aid.
“All the neighbors have been super helpful,” she said, “getting water for my dog, getting all of us water, getting my son a sippy cup, everything.”
Anyone affected by this fire that may have left the scene can call 1-800-Red-Cross.
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3-alarm fire tears through homes in Allentown | Lehigh Valley Regional News | wfmz.com
