PONTE VEDRA, Fla. --
Guests in a hotel villa in Ponte Vedra were forced to scramble after the building in which they were staying went up in flames Friday afternoon.
The Villas at the Marriott at Sawgrass caught fire at about 5 p.m. after hotel guests said they believe lightning struck the building.
The first fire crews to arrive at the two-alarm fire in the 1000 block of PGA Tour Boulevard found flames coming from the roof of the building.
Nineteen rooms had to be evacuated as firefighters battled the blaze.
Hotel guests on the first floor of the building told Channel 4 they had no idea there was a fire until other guests told them.
Zoe Anderson said she was in her room watching TV with her two children when she heard the crash of lightning, but assumed the bolt had hit a tree.
"About a half hour later, we go out for a cigarette break and this lady said, 'You've got to get out of there. It's on fire.' We saw the smoke come down after that. I grabbed the kids, but left everything else in there," Anderson said.
It took St. Johns County firefighters and the Jacksonville Beach Fire Department nearly an hour to extinguish the flames that destroyed seven or eight units on the villas' second floor.
"It was scary for a little bit. Thank God everyone got out OK," Anderson said.
Guests staying at the Marriott across the way said they had a clear view of the chaos happening at the villas.
"It was quick, but it burned a long time. It seemed like it took awhile to get out the fire," hotel guest Karri Kagur. "Since we were on the sixth floor, we were shouting down to the firefighters that it was in the center of the roof."
While guests staying at the villas said they think lightning sparked the blaze, firefighters have not yet confirmed the cause.
No one was hurt in the fire.
