BATON ROUGE - Officials with the Baton Rouge Fire Department say an arsonist is behind a Friday morning fire that destroyed an apartment complex and displaced 11 people. 

Firefighters were first alerted to the blaze around 1:15 a.m.; they rushed to Atkinson Street, which is just off Florida Boulevard, and managed to extinguish the fire in just under thirty minutes.

First responders say the blaze was contained to the bedroom of an unoccupied apartment, but two other units in the same complex were occupied and these sustained smoke and water damage. The entire incident caused damages that total a loss of about $15,000.  

The fire did not result in any injuries and Red Cross was called in to assist the eleven displaced individuals.

As this apartment fire is believed to be the result of arson, anyone with information related to the incident is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.