DONALDSONVILLE — A vacant house along Railroad Avenue near Donaldsonville's historic district caught fire Thursday morning. 

Fire Chief Travis Cedotal said his crews first heard about the fire just before 8 a.m., and when firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke coming from the rear of the residence. 

Cedotal said that his crews entered the house in the back, where the fire was most concentrated, adding that firefighters from Paincourtville and Napoleonville were called as backup.

The homes on both sides of the vacant home that caught fire were protected, Cedotal added. 

By 11 a.m., fire crews had put out most of the blaze, working to extinguish any hot spots leftover. 

"We'll look into everything that's going on and try to determine what happened," Cedotal said, noting that the home was vacant for about a year, but that it did still have utilities.