A man and woman are dead and another man hospitalized after a raging inferno reduced a two-story Westside home to charred timbers early Thursday morning, according to Jacksonville fire and Sheriff's Office officials.
It was the second fatal fire in six days in Jacksonville after a New Year's Day blaze left one woman dead in a West Virginia Avenue home, fire officials said.
While no cause for the blaze on the dead-end of McCargo Street just south of Ramona Boulevard has been determined, the Sheriff's Office said there was no power connected to the house when it started.
The fire was fully involved when the first six fire engines and ladder trucks arrived about 3:30 a.m., Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Capt. Eric Prosswimmer said.
"There was heavy fire showing upon our arrival," he said. "... It was two stories, but it collapsed and it was not safe."
At one point firefighters were ordered out after a chief determined the building was becoming too unstable.
"The crews brought a victim [the woman] out with them. That victim was considered deceased shortly thereafter," Prosswimmer said. "They had a second patient outside."
That man was transported to a hospital and is expected to be OK.
Firefighters continued to work on the fire, resuming a home search after the hospitalized victim said there was someone else inside, Prosswimmer said. That's when firefighters discovered one more man in the back of the burnt home, the Sheriff's Office said.
"There were power lines down and we were concerned about them," Prosswimmer said. "We don't know if they were live or not, but we don't touch them."
No identities of the victims have been released, although a neighbor believed a relative of the building's owner was living there.
The fatal fire on New Year's Day was reported just after 7:30 a.m. in a home near Moncrief Road. The Sheriff's Office said someone walking by spotted smoke and called 911, then firefighters found an elderly woman in a downstairs hallway.
The woman was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns but later pronounced dead, officials said. Family members identified her as retired school bus driver Dolly Rhodes, saying she had lived in the home for more than 60 years, according to news partner First Coast News.
The Sheriff's Office said that fire is not considered criminal in nature.
Anyone with information on either fire is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at (904) 630-0500 or First Coast Crime Stoppers at (866) 845-8477 (TIPS).
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