(Radio Iowa) – Officials say it appears an electric space heater sparked an overnight fire that has displaced the six residents of an apartment building in a small northwest Iowa town. Armstrong Assistant Fire Chief Wes Leach says the fire was reported at about 12:30 this (Wednesday) morning. “When we arrived on scene we saw heavy smoke coming from the one apartment complex,” Leach says. “We had determined that all residents had been evacuated prior to us getting there.” While there was a lot of smoke, Leach says the fire itself was confined to one apartment and was quickly put out.

“There was obviously some smoke damage to the rest of the apartments in the surrounding hallway,” Leach says. “…It looks like there was an electric space heater plugged in that started a blanket on fire.” Leach says fire fighters were able to use a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, but stayed on the scene for about two hours. One of the building’s residents was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The U-S Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates about 12-hundred fires in the U-S will be caused by space heaters this year.