A JFRD firefighter and his family are recovering after losing much of their home in St. Johns County to a fire on Monday night.
The community has since stepped up in a big way to help.
In a matter of minutes, everything changed for the Parkin family. Caitlin Parkin had just got home with her two children to a sight she never could have imagined. “I went to the front door, and the house was filled with smoke. There was standing water on the floor. I saw a couple of my animals,” she said.
She immediately called her husband Jessie Parkin, a JFRD firefighter.
“I hear all the frantic; everything going on. I hear the smoke alarm going off, and my heart just drops,” he said.
He raced down from his station to their home in St. Johns County.
Parkin has put out many fires himself but has never been a victim to one before.
He said, “When you come home to that, and you look to your left, and you see members of your family have passed — no matter how tough you are, it’s going to break you down.”