Restoration efforts continue to rebuild the Five 10 Flats

Keys, wallet and phone. That’s all Brian Perhamus, ‘21, had time to grab when a fire alarm blared through the Five 10 Flats building on May 2.

Around 2 p.m., Perhamus said he noticed smoke outside his window. Moments later, the fire alarm went off.

“I was like, ‘This is probably not ideal’,” he said. “So, I grabbed my keys, wallet, phone and kind of just left everything else because I probably don’t want to stay in a building on fire, right?”

Five months later, the Five 10 Flats apartments and local businesses on the ground floor are still being reconstructed.

Perhamus, who was working remotely that day, was one of the tenants that was displaced. He said he’s been able to stay with his family in Easton, but not all residents were as fortunate.

Matthew Callahan, the marketing director for Civic Property Management — the company that manages the Five 10 Flats — said he estimates about 130 residents were displaced.

Perhamus said Civic Property Management has provided displaced residents with hotel accommodations and regular email updates.

Callahan said while the fire caused significant damage, especially to the roof of the building, the water used to extinguish it ended up creating more destruction.

When the building was evacuated, displaced residents gathered in the nearby parking garage on Polk Street, where they waited for about five hours until people were let back into the building.

Perhamus said those who needed medication or had pets were allowed back into the building first. He was able to re-enter his apartment around 10 p.m. for 10 minutes to collect his essentials.

Since his apartment was located on the third floor away from the most heavily damaged corner of the building, it was spared the worst of the destruction. However, he said top-floor residents and those facing East Third Street likely lost everything from water damage.

In the following days, Perhamus said residents were assigned short time slots to retrieve more belongings from their apartments. During that week, he said the restoration company Paul Davis began to work on repairs.

Shawna Foltz, the director of operations for Civic Property Management, said the fire never spread into the building, and all the necessary repairs are because of water damage.

Foltz said after the fire department marked the building as safe, Paul Davis’s team went inside to start purifying the air. She said they worked on eliminating moisture and the dessicates before starting with the reconstruction.

Suzanne Jacobs, the reconstruction project manager for Paul Davis, said the roof has been the team’s biggest challenge, and the company’s mitigation team has yet to finish working on it.

She said when the temporary cover of the roof was removed, debris fell to the floor below from charring. Jacobs said construction workers are still cleaning up the debris, and they will then seal the roof and floor.

“The thing that needs to be taken care of first is the building needs to be dried in, and that means that it’s completely watertight,” Jacobs said. “We want to make sure that the building’s watertight before we add anything on the inside in case we get a huge storm, and everything we just did then gets wet and we have to redo it.”

Jacobs said the cleanup alone took four months and required 100 to 150 workers on-site daily. The construction team is now repairing the least affected side to reopen at least the first two floors, even without an elevator.

She said repairs are also happening in commercial spaces, and there have been initial installations of the plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems.

“I like to see what the building looked like before it got torn apart, so I have an idea of how to put it all back together,” Jacobs said. “I also communicate with the mitigation team to tell them how I want something removed, so it is easier to put it back in.”

Jacobs said the working conditions were difficult, with the heat making hydration a priority. She said all workers wore Tyvek protective suits to guard against hazardous materials.

Foltz said the response from the Bethlehem community has been overwhelming, with fundraisers and donations from local organizations supporting tenants.

“(Fundraising organizations) had a QR code and a link where residents who were impacted by the fire could sign up and then receive funds,” Foltz said. “I just think the overwhelming response of this neighborhood of South Side Bethlehem has been huge and amazing.”

Though the initial target for the project’s completion was January 2026, Jacobs said delays — worsened by tariffs affecting equipment shipments — make March a more realistic estimate for completion.

“My plan — my aggressive schedule — would be March,” she said. “But even that’s an aggressive estimate.”

Since the fire, the only business to reopen on the bottom floor of the building has been El Jefes Taqueria.

Jacobs said she also oversaw that reconstruction project. After the restaurant was finished, she said she remembers how happy the owner was, and she looks forward to feeling that joy again when the apartments are complete.

“My goal right now is to get everyone back in their homes,” Jacobs said. “Everyone in this building was displaced within moments, so my hope is to provide them with a safe and comfortable place to live again.”