4 apartments damaged in Jacksonville fire

This browser does not support the video element.

Four apartments were damaged Sunday in an early-morning fire in Jacksonville, firefighters said.

Flames began at the Preserve Apartments on Old New Kings Road just after 5 a.m.

When firefighters arrived, huge flames were shooting out of the building.

“The whole bottom is completely full of flames. They were rolling out of the bottom floor,” Patrick Cockcroft, a neighbor, said.

Action News Jax spoke to a man who heard a loud boom and woke up to smoke in his apartment. He said he immediately told his neighbors to get out.

Investigators believe the fire happened somewhere in an apartment’s screened-in porch. They say four apartments were damaged; two were a total loss, including the man who saved his neighbors.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.