Man escapes Southside house fire

JFRD: Cause of fire appeared to be electrical in nature

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Fire Rescue is working to find out the cause of a fire that damaged a home on the Southside early Wednesday morning.

JFRD was dispatched to a single-family home on 3523 Bowden Circle East, off of Belfort Road, just before 3 a.m. in reference to a fire.

Neighbors told Channel 4, they heard a loud boom and noticed a lot of smoke in the area.

"We came out of our door and we couldn't even see ourselves. The whole neighborhood was covered in smoke," said Dave Eichenlaub, who lives near the house that caught fire. "All of a sudden after the smoke there for a few minutes, we saw a blaze from the roof line and it got kind of intense then. But there's propane tanks and stuff like that around. The key thing is everyone's out and safe and they responded very quickly."

JFRD said a firefighter had minor inhalation after his mask fell off in the home during the fire. The firefighter is expected to be okay.

"Heavy fire conditions throughout the trailer. Responding crews did a good job, made a quick interior attack and got the fire under control," said JFRD Battalion Chief Andrew White.

According to JFRD, one man was in the home during the fire and made it out safely. Neighbors told Channel 4, the man's name is Robert.

"We have no indication what happened. We talked to Robert. He said the only thing he knew is he woke up and saw smoke and ran outside, called the fire department and said my house is on fire. That's all he knows," said Eichenlaub.

JFRD said the fire appeared to have been caused by an electrical issue.