The Lafayette Fire Department is pleading with the community to put fire safety at the forefront.
The city is seeing a 266% increase in structure fires compared to last year.
From Jan. to Mar. of 2020, Lafayette saw a total of six structure fires. During that same period of time this year, the city has already seen 22. So far, one fire this year was fatal. Last year, during this period of time none of those six fires resulted in death.
The fire department isn't exactly sure why the city is seeing this increase. Leaders believe more people staying home during the pandemic may be playing a role.
Brian Alkire, LFD assistant fire chief, said cooking fires make up the majority of this year's incidents. Out of all 22 fires, eleven of them have started in a kitchen. Ten of the cooking fires were contained in the kitchen but one of them became a structure fire.
He said this weekend is a great time to take fire preventative measures.