Mother and son who jumped from 3rd story window to escape fire speak with FOX 4

Residents of a Far East Dallas apartment complex spent their Thanksgiving in new homes after being displaced by a fire.

Since losing everything they owned the day before Thanksgiving, they’ve had time to reflect, and say by surviving such a traumatic ordeal they have new respect and appreciation for the world around them.

Brandon Jackson woke up his girlfriend and his mother, early Wednesday morning, after hearing people screaming about a fire. Jackson says he realized all three were trapped on the 3rd floor with only one way out.  The window. 

Jackson says good samaritans on the ground were screaming for them to jump onto a mattress they were holding. His girlfriend did, but his mother was hesitant. It wasn't until he said ‘okay then, we will both die here’ that she decided to jump. He followed moments later.

Dublin and her son say it's overwhelming to experience the outpouring of support by so many different people.

"People have been helping at my job, people have been helping in the community. As soon as we came out, people gave us their shirts and their shoes.  My job has been giving us food, they gave us food for Thanksgiving. I was so grateful for that,” Jackson told FOX 4.

Dublin says it wasn’t until she saw the video taken by a neighbor, that she realized the only reason she survived was because of the goodness of strangers.

"Hopefully this is an example of how we can all work together and make this a better world.”

The fire damaged the 24 unit building so badly, it had to be torn down, removing any hope of salvaging anything.

Jackson says he never heard a smoke or fire alarm, he only woke up because he heard people screaming. They have since been relocated to another apartment building on the property, where they again find themselves on the 3rd floor.