BATON ROUGE — An early morning fire at an abandoned home on Brady Street off North Acadian Thruway is being investigated as arson, leaving residents worried about ongoing safety concerns.

Neighbor Kenyatta Drake said she believes a homeless person might have broken into the house, and started the fire.

“I really truly would say that they probably did set something on fire in there and didn’t even know that they left something on or something,” said Drake.

She said homeless people frequently break into vacant homes in the neighborhood all the time. She said they always break into the house seeking shelter.

“There were some homeless people always walking up and down the street. We saw them come into the home breaking in from the backside and they would live in here,” said Drake.

Drake said there was another time she noticed a window open at the home but she knew the owner was not present. She said she told the owner of the property, who periodically checks on the house, but the break-ins still continue. 

She said this was not the first time a vacant home caught on fire.

“A couple of months ago a house on the backstreet some homeless people were staying in there and it caught on fire,” said Drake.

Drake said homelessness is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed to help prevent incidents like this.

“First thing we need to do is get these homeless people off the streets and maybe that will stop the cause of some of these fires,” said Drake.