Coroner IDs Second and Third Victims in West Ward Apartment Fire

By Christina Georgiou

Workers were seen boarding up and securing the building
at 724 Spring Garden St. where Joy Lozier, 24, and her four-year-
old son Makai Peters, along with James Strickland, 25, lost
their lives after a fire ripped through their upper-level
apartment. Seven residents next door, right, were displaced by
the blaze.

Makai Peters, 4, and James Strickland, 25, have been formally identified by Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek as the two residents who died at the scene of the fatal blaze that occurred at 724 Spring Garden St. early this morning.

The official manner and cause of their deaths will be released at a later date, Lysek said, pending the completion of autopsies.

Lysek confirmed that Peters is the son of Joy Lozier, 24, who was pronounced dead at the Lehigh Valley Hospital burns unit at 7:30 a.m. Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim ruled her death accidental, as the result of body burns, in a press release issued earlier today.

Three other residents of the home, including a baby, escaped the upstairs apartment home with injuries. Ground-floor apartment occupant Kris Thompson, 28, was the only resident in the building to escape unscathed.

Easton Fire Chief John Bast said not a single smoke detector was found in either unit, and attributed the deaths and the extensive damage to the building to their lack.

Joy Lozier's and Makai Peters' deaths tragically mark three generations of fatalities in one family due to fire.

Joy Lozier's mother, Charlette Ann Eryilmaz, also perished as the result of a fire at her home in Phillipsburg, NJ a little over seven years ago, in May of 2006, a copy of her obituary archived online states. Eryilmaz was 36 years old.

Helen Lozier, Joy Lozier's grandmother and Peters' great-grandmother, is a lifelong Easton resident.

She is additionally the great-grandmother to Elijah Strickland, who was murdered in 2008 by Eugenio Torres in Wilson Borough. Torres had been dating the boy's mother at the time. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the crime in 2011

James Strickland was Elijah's father, and he and Joy Lozier were apparently second cousins.

Joy Lozier's other son, a baby, believed to be about a year old, was saved from the blaze, and was reportedly released from the hospital earlier today after being treated for smoke inhalation.

Updated at 7:47 p.m.