JACKSONVILLE, Fla – A spa business inside a building on stilts over water on Baymeadows Park Drive off Baymeadows Road was declared a total loss Thursday after a fire tore through the building.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department crews battled the fire at Essentials Massage and Facial near Baymeadows and I-95. Now no one is allowed inside because it is not safe.
Recommended Videos
The windows are busted out and the walls are charred. There is debris from the floor after the fire went through the floor, which is raised over the water on stilts.
@THEJFRD doing their thing early this am! pic.twitter.com/xthHkpnOp0
— THEJFRD (@THEJFRD) March 24, 2022
Because of how the building was situated, when crews entered the building and saw the fire had burned through the floor, they pulled back for safety and used two aerial ladders and ground hoses to dowse the fire.
Crews were on scene for more than five hours.
“Unfortunately, when we fight it from the outside, you are limited to where you can access it from,” JFRD Capt. Eric Prosswimmer said. “So you actually move the fire through the building, but it’s really nothing that we can do about it. We would rather lose a building and make sure that nobody gets hurt or killed, and we know that the building can be replaced.”
JFRD says the fire is now under control and no one was injured.
The state fire marshal has started an investigation. A cause has not yet been determined.
