BATON ROUGE - A kitchen fire that scorched a home off Perkins Road Sunday afternoon started when food was left to fry unattended.

The Baton Rouge Fire Department said they responded to the fire shortly before 1:30 p.m. Sunday at a house on Germantown Drive, in a neighborhood not far from Perkins Road.

Crews arrived to find smoke and flames spilling out of the home's front windows, and both residents were safe outside. Heavy fire was coming from the rooms near the kitchen.

The fire was contained to the kitchen side and extinguished around 30 minutes later. The rest of the house sustained heavy smoke damage, according to the department.

One of the occupants of the home told fire officials they were frying food when they walked away for a few minutes. They returned to the kitchen to find the entire room on fire.

The Red Cross was contacted to help the two displaced residents, fire officials say.

In a release about the house fire, BRFD said the following:

"Unattended cooking is the leading cause of kitchen fires this time of year. We want to remind everyone to stay in the kitchen and focus on the food while cooking on the stovetop."