John Badman|The Telegraph Alton firefighters responded to an apartment fire in the 500 block of Ridge Street in Alton aat about 11:50 p.m. Thursday. No injuries were reported.

ALTON — Alton firefighters busy battling a fire on Amelia Street late Thursday were also called to an apartment fire in the 500 block of Ridge Street.

At about 11:50 p.m., aa few Alton firefighters and an East Alton Fire Department ladder truck which was helping at the Amelia Street blaze and responded to the report of light smoke was coming from a downstairs rear apartment of a multi-unit building.

Firefighters moved inside and extinguished a small fire. Nobody was in the apartment when firefighters arrived but apparently had been. A used household fire extinguisher was laying outside near the door to the unit.

No injuries were reported. The occupants of the other apartments in the building were evacuated.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

John Badman is a 1982 graduate of SIU-Carbondale, with a major in cinema and photography and a minor in law enforcement administration of justice. He has worked at The Telegraph in Alton full-time for 39 years and has been named the National Press Photographers Association's Region-5 Photographer of the Year six times.