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‘I thought I was about to die’: Couple jumps from second-story window to escape apartment fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man and woman are grateful to be alive after a fire damaged their apartment early Sunday morning.

It happened on 12th Street in the Hogan’s Creek neighborhood just before 7 a.m.

Felicia Hampton and her boyfriend were on the second floor and only had one way out.

“I did not have a choice but to jump out of the window because I didn’t have any exit,” Hampton said. “I thought I was about to die.”

They made it out with just the clothes on their backs and a wallet Hampton held in her hands outside.

Hampton says they were in bed when an alarm system on her boyfriend’s phone alerted them of the smoke.

They also heard a loud bang from a nearby porch.

“The smoke got so thick coming into my bedroom window,” Hampton said. “I started gagging and choking, I didn’t have a choice but to jump out of the window.”

It was the only option out of the apartment they have been calling home for nearly two years.

A bandage covered the cuts and bruises Hampton’s boyfriend ended up with after that jump.

The Red Cross is helping them with a place to stay for the time being.

According to JFRD, the fire damaged half of two apartments.

The state fire marshal is investigating to determine what caused this fire.


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