'This Was the Worst Fire in My 24 Years' Chief Says

Easton Fire Chief John Bast stood outside 724 Spring Garden Street Tuesday afternoon and talked about what could have been. 

The deadly fire that ripped through the top floors of the West Ward duplex Monday morning easily could have spread to the east. In that sense, it could have been worse.

But in a more important way, it could have been better. There are three people who would be alive today, Bast said, if their home had had a smoke alarm.

"I'd stake my reputation on it," he said. "A working smoke detector increases your chance of surviving by 95 percent."

No one's sure why the rental home didn't have smoke alarms. Had they been there, victims Joy Lozier, 24, her son Makai Peters, 4 and a man believed to be 25-year-old James Strickland might still be alive.

Bast said the home was inspected for rentals in 2007. "He passed. He got a license," he said. "How the smoke detectors aren't there, I don't know."

That's a matter for police and code enforcement officials now. 

The cause of the fire will be undetermined for now, but Bast said there's nothing suspicious about it. That hasn't stopped the fire—the first one involving a fatality since 2001—from haunting the department.

"This was the worst fire in my 24 years," Bast said. "It's taken its toll on the guys."

In front of the home, a memorial to the three victims had grown from a few candles and flowers on Monday to include more candles, more flowers, plus photos, balloons and stuffed animals. 

Someone had written a long message to Lozier, who had gotten her younger son out of the blaze, handing him out a third story window to a neighbor on an adjoining roof.

"You committed one last heroic act," the message read, "trying to be the best mother you could be..."