JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A fire in Deerwood has forced dozens of people out of their homes.
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Fire crews responded to Hunters Ridge at Deerwood Apartments on Wednesday around 5:20 p.m.
Nicole Wine, a neighbor at the complex, said she came home to find her building on fire.
“Some people didn’t realize there was a problem until they heard people yelling ‘fire, fire,’” Wine said.
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Wine said she was worried about her dog, but many of her neighbors had nearly lost everything.
“You can smell the smoke, you can see the smoke damage, water is dripping from the vents,” Wine said. “They gave us about 5-10 minutes to get some stuff out of the building to get our dogs, but they were like you guys can’t spend the night there.”
The Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department said no one was hurt, but 33 people don’t have a place to call home.
“You think it’s never going to happen to me,” Wine said.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department said the fire was started by lightning.
“From what maintenance and other people in the building said was that lightning struck the building twice,” Wine said. “If you look at the roof in the middle apartment, there is a hole in the roof so that building caught on fire. And then if you go to the back, those in the middle (apartment units) were caught on fire and all the way down to the first floor are up in flames.”
The First Alert Weather Team said between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., the Doppler radar was showing multiple lightning strikes near and over the Baymeadows area.
While the fire may have occurred about an hour later, the First Alert Weather Team said it’s possible it smoldered before growing in intensity.
“Some people lost their stuff but luckily no one lost their lives today,” Wine said.
The Red Cross is providing financial assistance for food, clothing, lodging, and other essentials like helping with medicine and health support.
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