BATON ROUGE - Firefighters say an issue with kitchen equipment led to an early morning fire in a popular fast food restaurant on Plank Road. 

According to representatives with the Baton Rouge Fire Department, fire crews were called to a Church's Chicken on Plank Road, around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Upon arriving, first responders saw heavy smoke coming from the building. Quickly forcing their way inside via the building's front glass doors, firefighters traced the flames and smoke to the restaurant's kitchen where they realized a fryer had either been left on overnight or was malfunctioning. 

While working swiftly to extinguish the flames, firefighters also noted that the building's surpression system over the fryers did not activate as it should have.

The incident has saddled owners with a $100,000 loss which is mostly due to smoke and water damage.

Officials also say that due to the extent of fire damage, the building's utilities had to be cut off. 

According to figures provided by the National Fire Protection Association, incidents such as this are not rare. Statistics reveal that fire departments across the country responded to an average of 8,240 structure fires at restaurants annually, between 2012 and 2016.