Young mother, children left without place to live for 2nd time in a year after apartment fire

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]A tragic update for a family in St. Nicholas who have lost everything in a fire that killed one of their loved ones as well.

[00:00:07]>> Early Sunday morning, the fire started and a young mother of three was able to escape with her children.

[00:00:11]>> News for Jack reporter Scott Johnson spoke with her as neighbors are trying to help them.

[00:00:18]>> A family in St. Nicholas is devastated after a fire in their apartment killed a young man and left a young family without a place to live. I spoke with the woman who escaped, Sandra Martinez, when I was speaking with her friend who's helping her out via FaceTime. This is what she says happened.

[00:00:36]>> I was in my room with my kids, and there was a lady in the other room and a guy that slept in the living room. And when he yelled, I walked out and saw a lot of smoke and flames. I grabbed my kids and broke the window along with the other guy who was staying with us. And I yelled for him to exit through the window, but the smoke was so heavy.

[00:00:53]Their backstory is sad. I'm told Martinez's husband was deported about a year ago. And this man, Linton Alejandro Mongia, is the cousin who helped her and her children have a place to live. This is the GoFundMe. The family has placed online. What will you do now? Do you know yet?

[00:01:10]>> No.

[00:01:13]>> For the moment, they don't have a place.

[00:01:15]Right now, she is staying with a cousin.

[00:01:17]And right now, what we are asking is the help from all of Jacksonville so she can have an apartment. As far as the rest of the complex I walked through it today, you wouldn't even know anything was happening. Things are pretty normal around here except the one building where the fire happened. And the community is coming to help. I spoke with Margarita Weber who says she went to Publix to specifically shop for buy 1 get one free products. All the free products are going to Martinez's family.

[00:01:43]>> Please, whether you speak Spanish or you speak English, help. If you are human, you know what the word human means?

[00:01:55]Help them because today is them.

[00:01:58]Tomorrow could be you.

[00:01:59]>> Despite the help, the future is uncertain for this young mother navigating her family's loss of nearly everything they have. Scott Johnson, Channel 4, the local station.