A Jacksonville grandmother is leaning on her faith after a fire destroyed the Northside home where she spent nearly a decade building memories.
Mary Cummings says a lightning strike may have sparked the fire that left her and her young grandson with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.
Christina Burgess has more on a family now focused on rebuilding.
Mary Cummings says she never imagined a routine night would end with her watching her home go up in flames.
She says she and her grandson were driving to the home late Monday night from her daughter’s house when they turned onto Sunset Drive and saw their home on fire.
“When we pulled up and I turned in the driveway, seen nothing but flames and my grandbaby he was so devastated, he was like, He was crying, he was We don’t got nothing and all that stuff gone, grandma. We don’t got no clothes, we ain’t got nowhere to stay”
In a matter of minutes, Cummings says everything she had built inside the home over nearly a decade was gone.
As flames spread, she says her thoughts turned to her dog, Prince, who was inside.
“I kept saying, ‘Oh my dog, he in there, he is dead.’ They said, ‘your dog in there?’ I said, ‘Yeah, he’s in there.'”
Firefighters were able to rescue the dog, giving him oxygen at the scene.
“When I came to say, ‘Prince.’ He looked up at me, and I said, ‘You all right, buddy. You’re a good dog.’ I was so happy and relieved that he was okay.”
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue is investigating the cause of the fire. Cummings says an investigator told her it may have been sparked by lightning, though officials have not confirmed a cause.
“I really couldn’t understand how the fire started and it was all that raining. The man said the lightning could have struck,” said Cummings, “He was like, it don’t look like no electrical problem or nothing like that. So, he was like kind of stuck on the lightning.”
After the fire, Cummings was able to recover the urns of loved ones from the home, but says most personal belongings, photos and memories were lost.
Now, she and her grandson are rebuilding from the ground up.
“I’m just a grandmother. I’m a mother first,” said Cummings, “I’m a person that believe in God with all my heart and soul. I know somewhere, somehow. He’ll fix this. He’ll fix this.”
Cummings says fire officials told her it could take up to six weeks to determine the official cause of the fire.
If you’d like to help this family, you can click on their GoFundMe here.