ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – Flames tore through an Atlantic Beach home Monday afternoon leading to a massive response and fire crews working for hours to put out the flames and keep the fire from spreading to neighboring houses.
Firefighters began battling the fire, just off East Coast Drive, before 5 p.m. and a ladder truck and at least six engine companies were still battling the fire an hour later. They were soaking the home next door, where the siding was already scorched by the heat of the fire.
Neighbor Sean Hollod was coming home from work and saw the smoke and when he and another neighbor from down the street realized the home was on fire they wanted to make sure no one was inside.
Hollod and the other man called 911 then found a sign and used it to break a window and get inside the home looking for survivors.
"You could tell the upstairs was on fire so we ran around the front and started beating on the door, not knowing if anybody was in there. So we just knocked the window out, opened it up and ran upstairs. He took the downstairs, I took the upstairs and it was just completely full, like a wall of smoke," Hollod said.
After working as quickly as possible to make sure no one was inside, Hollod realized he was starting to get into serious danger.
"(I was yelling), ‘Is anybody home? Is anybody home? Wake up! Is anybody here?' And I took a breath of the smoke and I said, ‘No,' I couldn't deal with it and I ran back downstairs," Hollod said. "You just kind of go into that adrenaline mode. You just think if it was you, or your house, or your mom, or your dad, or your brother or something like that, you just start getting visuals of people hurt."
Investigators are calling the home a total loss and said the owners were not home at the time of the fire.
"We have a partial roof collapse, incredible amounts of damage to the interior and it will be one of those deals where hopefully, the family has the strength to deal with this epilogue," Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department spokesman Tom Francis said.
Neighbors believe they may have been out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Unfortunately it was on the holidays, but maybe the holidays saved them because, I don't know, because they were out of town," Holland said. "I know there is children, dogs, four dogs, and two or three children, so luckily nobody was home."
The heat from the fire did scorch the siding of a house next door but firefighters were able to stop the fire from spreading.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The home, three blocks from the beach, is estimated to be worth between $750,000 to $1 million.
Atlantic Beach police said 10th Street was closed between Seminole Road and East Coast Drive and one block of East Coast Drive were closed due to the fire.