BATON ROUGE – Firefighters stumbled on a house fire while driving Sunday morning.

A crew driving near Lee Drive noticed a plume of smoke, followed it to the source and found a raging fire at a home on Burgin Avenue shortly after 7:30. The rear patio of the home in the 900 block was on fire, firefighters said.

Five people in the house were alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm and had evacuated. They were outside when firefighters pulled up.

It took about 30 minutes to get the fire under control, which was contained to the rear of the home, the Baton Rouge Fire Department said in a news release.

Investigators determined the fire was caused by an unattended candle left outside. The candle ignited the wicker furniture which caused the fire.

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