JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Loved ones of a family that lost three children in a devastating house fire on Wednesday are sharing more about the family and asking the community for support.<\/p>\n
Two adults and two other children in the family remain hospitalized with critical injuries from the fire.<\/p>\n
A cousin started a GoFundMe campaign for the Manati family, which has raised more than $89,000 so far.<\/p>\n
Alessia Firi said the funds will help cover the unexpected medical and funeral costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir family and community are completely heartbroken as they face the unbearable pain of this loss while also holding onto hope for healing and recovery,\u201d Firi wrote on the donation campaign page. \u201cThe hope is to ease even a small part of this burden so the family can focus on healing, grieving, and being together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firi told News4JAX that Genti, the father of the children who died, is her mother\u2019s uncle. The extended family is originally from Albania.<\/p>\n
Firefighters said the fire happened at 5:13 a.m. Wednesday on Windergate Drive near Old St. Augustine Road in Mandarin. JFRD and the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office responded to the scene.<\/p>\n
Watch the full media briefing below:<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Percy Golden said crews arrived just 4 minutes later and found heavy fire on the first floor and heavy smoke on the second floor.<\/p>\n
Two adults had already escaped with two minors before crews arrived.<\/p>\n
A neighbor told News4JAX that a baby and an adult who were among the survivors were thrown from a second-story window and successfully caught by bystanders.<\/p>\n
Golden said firefighters searched the home and found three children dead, and the fire was declared under control at 5:38 a.m.<\/p>\n
JFRD took the two adults and two children who survived the fire to a nearby hospital with critical injuries, Golden said.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross is helping seven adults and six children who have been displaced due to the fire.<\/p>\n
The State Fire Marshal\u2019s Office and JSO Homicide Unit are investigating the fire. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Loved ones of a family that lost three children in a devastating house fire on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[855,116,118,117,64175],"class_list":["post-382607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-fire","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-state-fire-marshal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382607","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=382607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}