Apartment fire on the Southside leaves some tenants without a home

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department responded to a fire call at the Magnolia Point Apartments on Beach Boulevard Sunday afternoon.

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“It smelled like the inside of a barbecue pit,” Byron Pugh, a resident said.

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That’s how Pugh, who lived on the first floor of this unit, described the heavy smoke that covered his home.

“I opened the front door, and there was smoke outside,” Pugh said. “Then I went back in, and there was smoke in the apartment.”

Pugh said he was coming back home after making a trip to the grocery store when he heard...

“I heard my neighbors running around upstairs, which is very unusual.”

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He said the smoke was so heavy that he could see well enough to save his cats.

“Luckily, JFRD was able to get my cats out of there, all three of them,” Pugh said. “They gave them oxygen. It was freaking awesome.”

JFRD reported that no one was hurt.

Action News Jax doesn’t know what caused this fire as of right now, but what we do know is everyone who was in the building is safe.

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