Thick black smoke could be seen roiling into the sky above downtown Bogalusa early Wednesday morning, and firefighters found flames to go along with the smoke when they arrived on the scene shortly after receiving the call at 9:12 a.m.

The residence at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and East Seventh Street was found burning and thick with smoke, but fortunately, no one was inside at the time of the fire, said Asst. Chief Steven Moses.

As the black smoke billowed and flames shot through the roof, the Bogalusa Fire Department quickly got the situation under control.

But the little blue house was a total loss.

Although in this case no one would have been home to hear a warning, Moses took the opportunity to remind everyone to purchase, install and maintain smoke alarms.

“It’s the time of year that everybody needs to check the batteries in their smoke detectors,” he said.