JFRD: Two people jumped from second floor to escape apartment fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A couple is now searching for a place to stay after their apartment building caught fire Sunday morning.

“I just paid my rent for this month. Where am I going to go?” Felicia Hampton said.

JFRD responded to the apartment fire off Moncrief Road around 7 a.m.

We spoke with the displaced residents through a surrounding fence.

They said they had just fallen asleep when their phone alarm woke them up. It’s when they heard a bang, they opened their front door and came face-to-face with flames.

“I thought I was about to die. I thought I was about to die for real because I was gagging and choking and stuff. I didn’t have a choice but to jump out the window,” Hampton said.

When smoke filled the apartment, Felicia Hampton and her boyfriend had no choice but to jump from the second-story window.

The fire chief said both the bottom and top apartments are about 50% damaged.

Hampton believes the fire started underneath her apartment. She said the people below her haven’t had any lights or water for a while.

“I’m thinking they set a fire and set our apartment on fire,” Hampton said.

We reached out to Hampton’s landlord with American Reality.

She said they are currently in the process of evicting the tenant in the first-floor apartment. She also said American Reality does not have possession of the apartment at this time.

The official cause of the fire is still under investigation. Where the fire began has not been confirmed.

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