EASTON, Pa. — City officials on Tuesday defended the actions of firefighters during February’s Hotel Hampton fire, while acknowledging gaps in inspections, oversight and coordination identified in a federal investigation into the incident.
But throughout the lengthy City Council committee meeting, officials repeatedly blurred a central issue raised by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report: the difference between fire safety inspections, pre-fire planning and actual enforceable fire inspections.
Despite repeated references to inspections and safety reviews, officials acknowledged the city operated multiple overlapping systems — some focused on code enforcement, others on operational preparedness — that for years failed to consistently intersect at the Hampton…