Skip to main content
Clear icon
73º

‘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.


Recommended Videos