YULEE, Fla. – A Yulee family is thankful to be alive and safe after a fire destroyed their mobile home Monday morning.
Firefighters were called to the home on Flounder Gig Drive, just off U.S. 17 in Yulee, about 7 a.m. Crews got the flames under control, but not before the home was almost completely gutted.
Despite losing their home of five years to the fire, the couple who lived there with their six children said they were just glad everyone made it out safely including the family pets.
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Jessica Yagins said it was cold when she and her partner, Shawn Burnes, woke up, so they turned the heat on. Then she walked one of their daughters down the road for school.
“I came back. My older daughter came running out of the house saying she could smell smoke and I…we called 911 and that was it,” Yagins recalled Monday morning.
She told News4Jax the heat was so intense, some of the windows exploded. By the time it was over, all that was left standing on one side of the home was a charred wooden frame.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, though Yagins said she believes it got started in the couple’s bedroom.
She said the family does not have insurance. They're planning to stay with relatives for the time being.
“Everyone is fine,” Yagins said. “It’s just a matter of recouping and figuring out where we are at this point and going from there.”
Duane Wysong, the couple’s neighbor, said the fire could not have happened to a nicer family. He said Burnes used to work with him until he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease a year ago.
“They have six kids, so they are going to need some help,” Wysong said. “They would give the shirt off their back if they could.”