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A cherished Northside establishment, Furniture Mattress Depot, is grappling with a devastating turn of events after an accident involving a stolen vehicle left it engulfed in flames. The owner is now striving to rebuild and continue supporting the local community.
In Jacksonville, Fla., the business’s heartache unfolded early Sunday morning when the stolen car plowed into the store, sparking a fire. The incident took place around 2:30 a.m., jolting owner Fawzy Khalil awake with distressing news.
Khalil recounted the chaotic scene: “I arrived to find a car lodged inside my store,” he said. “It’s terrifying to witness such a sight, especially surrounded by firefighters, police, and all the ensuing chaos.”
“I came over here, I find a car inside my store,” said Khalil, “that’s really scary when you see a car inside the store with the fire department and the police and all this mess.”
According to Khalil, police said a stolen car crashed into the front of his store. Surveillance video from another store captured the crash. Three people hop out of the car and run off after the crash occurred.
A fire quickly spread, destroying merchandise and damaging the building. A lot of the furniture was damaged by water after crews put out the fire.
“A lot of sofas, a lot of it is soaked in water. I mean that’s done because mostly foam, when the water goes inside the foam and it stays in there, that will smell bad,” he said.
Six truckloads of burned and soaked furniture had to be thrown away.
“I survived for 15 years, but I don’t know about this accident,” said Khalil, “A really big loss, big loss.”
For 15 years, Fawzy Khalil built this store from the ground up.
“Still here because I have customers for 15 years, you know what that means families. They’ve been buying mattress, furniture, they’ve been the same customer,” he said.
Even with no electricity and a damaged storefront, he’s still doing what he can to serve his community and loyal customers. Now he’s hoping they’ll stand by him in his time of need.
“I need customers, that’s all. If I get more customers, I’ll be happy,” said Khalil.
Right now, Khalil doesn’t know how much he’ll pay for all the repairs. He told me he does not have insurance.
His main focus right now is getting his power back on, fixing this front window panel and getting this column repaired.
Monday afternoon First Coast News reached out to JSO to find out a description of the three suspects who fled the scene Sunday. We’ve still not heard back from them at this time, as soon as we receive information, we’ll update you.
