Students Displaced After Fire at The Edge Apartment Complex

Lafayette firefighters responded to a fire at The Edge apartment complex off Eraste Landry Road near Bertrand Drive on Thursday night.

Around 7:30 p.m., firefighters were dispatched to The Edge apartment complex. Eyewitnesses in the area reported a fire in one of the buildings, as images and videos began to surface on social media.

According to Lafayette Fire Department spokesperson Alton Trahan, 12 apartment units were evacuated, displacing the tenants who live in them. There is still no official cause of the blaze, but there has been speculation that the fire may have been caused by lightning or by a small kitchen appliance—possibly an air fryer.

We will update this post as more information is confirmed.

LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades

Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.