Glenn Epps – The Express-Times
Two people reportedly were rescued Thursday as fire damaged a mixed-use building in Phillipsburg, and may cause a popular downtown restaurant to temporarily close.
El Noa Noa con Sabor Latino, a Honduran restaurant in the 400 block of South Main Street, saw some damage from the incident reported shortly after 11 a.m., owner Carla Ramos told lehighvalleylive.com. The fire ignited inside an apartment on the building’s second floor, she told a reporter at the scene.
She said two people were rescued from the second-floor apartment, assisted by six police officers.
“I’m just glad everyone’s OK,” Ramos said. “I was worried about the people upstairs.”
Fire officials raced to the scene and were not immediately available for comment.
Ramos said she first noticed signs of the fire while working inside her first-floor restaurant. When she investigated, knocking on the tenants’ apartment door to inquire about the cause, she received no response, she said.
“It was so lucky that a police officer was driving past. I just flagged him down,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Sections of the area between South Main Street and Sitgreaves Street were blocked off to pedestrians and drivers early Thursday afternoon.
Fire crews knocked down the fire swiftly, Ramos said.
“It all happened so quickly,” she said.
Glenn Epps can be reached at gepps@lehighvalleylive.com or glenn_epps_on X (formerly known as Twitter.com), Facebook and Threads.
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