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<\/p>\nLashanna Gilbert shares her devastation after a fire destroyed her Jacksonville home, injuring two firefighters. <\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The owner of a Northside home destroyed in a fire that injured two Jacksonville firefighters is sharing her story for the first time.<\/p>\n
Lashanna Gilbert was vacationing in Texas with her son when she received a call she never expected. Her home on Percy Creek Drive had caught fire and was a total loss. She was unable to leave Texas due to family obligations, but plans to return to Jacksonville to see the home next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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“It’s a feeling that’s just so hard to describe when someone tells you everything is gone,” Gilbert said.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. When firefighters arrived, they found heavy flames and were told someone might be trapped inside.<\/p>\n
Two firefighters entered the burning home to search for possible victims. Both suffered minor burns during the effort.<\/p>\n
Officials later determined no one was inside the house. Gilbert and her 11-year-old son were out of state at the time.<\/p>\n
Learning that firefighters were hurt while trying to save her family has been difficult for Gilbert.<\/p>\n
“It’s heartbreaking, um, to think that somebody risked their life to go in that house, not knowing whether I was in there or that my son was in the home,” she said.<\/p>\n
Gilbert said she left Jacksonville on Sunday evening. Everything appeared normal before she left. She even had a package delivered Monday.<\/p>\n
Then came the call from law enforcement.<\/p>\n
“They were panicked,” Gilbert recalled.<\/p>\n
Gilbert moved into the home nearly a year ago. She spent months making the space her own, filling it with plants and personal touches.<\/p>\n
“It was a beautiful space. It was cozy, it was my home,” she said.<\/p>\n
The home also held treasured belongings for her son, including signed sports jerseys and other keepsakes.<\/p>\n
Gilbert said the loss extends far beyond the physical damage.<\/p>\n
“The memories that were lost that I’ll never get back,” she said.<\/p>\n
In the days since the fire, she says support from friends, neighbors and the community has helped her through the immediate aftermath.<\/p>\n
“I’m so thankful,” Gilbert said.<\/p>\n
Still, she says the reality of losing everything often hits during quiet moments.<\/p>\n
“When I really sit down in the quiet moment, it’s those are the moments when it really hits me like. I literally have nothing to go home to,” she said.<\/p>\n
Both firefighters have since been released from the hospital as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lashanna Gilbert shares her devastation after a fire destroyed her Jacksonville home, injuring two firefighters. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-311178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}