Residents at Madelyn Oaks apartments say fire could’ve been prevented

According to the Red Cross, 16 units were impacted by the fire that engulfed the building.

One tenant told Action News Jax Shanila Kabir the fire started from the attic directly above her unit on the third floor.

Emani Hackle has lost all her belongings in the fire, however, she believes the fire could possibly have been prevented because there were signs for hours prior. She said she called emergency maintenance hours before at 4 AM about a suspicious odor.

“I actually woke up out of my sleep and I smelled something a little off, but I didn’t see any smoke. I called maintenance immediately and they said they’ll send somebody out at 8 AM because that’s when they open.”

Hackle said maintenance never came and hours later, the smell intensified. By 1 PM, she said she and her fiancé ran outside.

“I was outside for 10 minutes, and then boom I saw mad smoke going up filling the whole area. People started coming out and the alarms went off.”

Her fiancé, Traevon Carter strongly believes there was enough time for maintenance to respond before the fire started. He said there were multiple calls made about a smell described as some type of gas leak in an eight-hour time window.

“If they came when I asked or at least came sooner, somebody could’ve said this smell was a fire starting. They could’ve grabbed the perfect people to help before it was too late,” said Carter.

Action News Jax reached out to the management at the Madelyn Oaks Apartments for comment. They said they do not have a statement right now, and they also did not disclose any details on what may have caused the fire.

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