Five days after a massive fire broke out at the old Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, the owner of Dr. Bob's storage is hoping to do everything he can to help his customers.
Robert Hornberger said there were about 90 cars, boats and motor homes inside his storage facility at the site in Lackawanna. He's considering this a "total loss".
"I'm going to try and reimburse as much as I can and do whatever I can to help them," he said Monday. "I’m glad nobody got hurt. I feel bad for my clients especially and the neighbors here. For them to have to go through this is just a terrible situation."
Hornberger said fire investigators recovered his receipts and records in tact from the facility. That should be helpful for customers filing insurance claims on the property lost during the fire. According to the storage agreement, owners are responsible for insuring their property on their own.
Julie Adamczyk was at the site of the fire Monday to take pictures of the damage. She had put her cars in storage with Dr. Bob's just four days before the fire started. Adamczyk is upset, but happy with how Hornberger is handling everything.
"God bless him," she said. "He called. Very calm man and respectful and he responded very professionally."
Neighbors in Bethlehem Park were cleaning up Monday afternoon. Ash could be seen on cars and debris was found in some front yards.
John Calleri said having to wash his car is a small inconvenience and well worth it, considering no homes were lost to the fire.
"The north wind saved those houses on Lincoln," he said. "I really think there would have been some home fires, as intense as that fire was. We got lucky, we really got lucky."
Many neighbors are just working to get life back to normal. But for Kathy McMullen, even after the clean up is done, the neighborhood won't really be the same without the iron plant next door.
"Now when I look out the window, it’s going to be so totally different," she said. "It’s going to take some getting used to."
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