BATON ROUGE - After several vacant house fires this year, including two within two days on the same street, the Baton Rouge Fire Department says it's not a cause for concern at this time. 

Within the first three months of the year, the Baton Rouge Fire Department has worked 52 structure fires. In April, firefighters put out another 10 fires. 

BRFD spokesman, Curt Monte, says it's not the worst they've seen. 

"We've had less than what we had in 2022, a little more than what we had in 2023."

Monte said there were only 29 structure fires within the first quarter of 2023, and 60 during Q1 of 2022. He did not specify how many of those fires occurred inside of vacant homes. 

However, a handful of this year's fires have been ruled as arson. Monte said investigations from the BRFD have led to 13 arson arrests this year. 

"Those numbers look pretty similar to the past years too. So we don't see anything that really jumps off the page and causes concern," said Monte. 

The most recent vacant house fire happened at 1618 23rd St. at 3:16 a.m. on May 7. Two days prior, firefighters responded to a vacant house fire at 1536 23rd St. 

Monte says the May 7 fire is believed to be arson, but the two incidents are not known to be connected at this time. The case is still actively under investigation.