Residents of a Jacksonville, Florida, neighborhood are calling a mobile home fire “cleansing” and a “deliverance.”
Neighbors say criminals were common at the mobile home. A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office report shows someone was shot and killed at the home in 2014.
On Thursday, fire crews said electrical issues with the AC unit likely sparked the flames that gutted the trailer. Everyone inside made it out OK.
“A cleansing fire for the neighborhood, make it nice and quiet again,” one neighbor said.
The trailer’s owner, Carol-Ann Williams, wasn’t home because she was already in jail on a drug charge before the fire.
JSO records show nine total arrests for the 53-year-old Williams, with charges ranging from drugs to prostitution.
WJAX Crime and Safety Expert Ken Jefferson broke down all the complaint calls made about the people living in the trailer.
“A lot of times call in under suspicion of, without proof of the suspicion of, it’s difficult for an officer to act,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson said out of the 25 calls for service listed to the home, an arrest was made one time.
“Officers still have to prove what’s going on, if they make an arrest they have to convince the state attorney to press charges,” Jefferson said.
”We have prayed and prayed, we have been waiting for great deliverance, we have our deliverance,” a neighbor said.
The city is looking into if the property will be demolished.
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