JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A lightning strike ignited a fire at a Baymeadows apartment complex Wednesday evening, according to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.
The fire was reported at an Hunters Ridge at Deerwood apartment complex in the 10100 block of Baymeadows Road, JFRD said.
Around 33 residents, including several children were left displaced.
Nicole Wine had just finished picking up her mom, Melanie, from the airport when her mother received an alert on her phone.
"The ring said there was a fire at Deerwood Hunter Ridge," said Melanie Wine, "I’m like 'what? what building?' and it said building 10, and I knew that was our building."
"We get out and park here and we’re running over to the building and there’s fire trucks EMS over there," she said.
According to JFRD, the fire started in the chimney chase and ran up into the attic.
"The fact that it was in the attic space, there’s no access to the backside of the building, we called for a couple extra crews to make sure we had this under control and didn’t lose the building," said JFRD Captain Eric Proswimmer.
"You could just see water dripping from the ceiling you could just smell the smoke. It basically looked like every chimney just caught on fire just all the way down," Nicole Wine said.
As for this mother and daughter, they said their apartment sustained no damage and they were able to get their dog out safely, but they'll still have to find another place to stay for the time being.
"They won’t let us back into our apartment we can’t spend the night so hopefully they will work with us for accommodations because of course a lot of people don’t have a place to stay tonight," said Nicole Wine.
The Red Cross is assisting the 33 people, including several children. They are providing financial assistance for food, clothing, lodging and other essentials.
JFRD said no one was taken to the hospital due to the fire.