Heavy smoke poured from a two-story apartment building at 733 Carrollwood Village Drive in Terrytown on Monday afternoon as a two-alarm fire tore through a six-plex unit, ultimately displacing 13 people, including 11 adults and two children. The fire was first reported around 2:08 p.m., and no injuries were reported.
Fire crews arrived within four minutes of the initial report and had the blaze under control in about 45 minutes, according to Assistant Chief Darryl Klumpp of the Terrytown Fifth District Volunteer Fire Department, as reported by NOLA.com. Flames moved through the walls of the building before crews contained them, and per Jefferson Parish officials, four apartment units suffered major fire damage while two more sustained smoke damage. That response time tracks closely with the department's own performance data — 2024 National Fire Incident Reporting System figures show the department averaging 4 minutes and 34 seconds on emergency calls, according to Digital Firehouse.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, the outlet's report notes. Terrytown Village Apartments is a 196-unit complex spread across 7.76 acres, according to the property's own listing information, meaning the damaged six-plex represents a small fraction of a much larger residential community on the West Bank.
Firefighters Worked Through Dangerous Heat
The blaze broke out during a stretch of severe summer heat across Jefferson Parish, with local officials issuing Extreme Heat Warnings as heat index values climbed as high as 115 degrees, according to WWL Louisiana. That meant firefighters spent 45 minutes battling active flames while also contending with extreme physical strain from the conditions outside.
The Terrytown Fifth District Volunteer Fire Department, despite its name, operates with a mostly career workforce — 36 career firefighters, 6 volunteers, and 13 support personnel spread across four stations, per the same Digital Firehouse data. The department functions as a non-profit under a cooperative endeavor agreement with Jefferson Parish Fire Protection District No. 5, funded through a dedicated property tax millage on district property owners, according to a report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. The agency has also historically played a regional role, at times lending spare apparatus to neighboring departments like Kenner's during equipment shortages, per the station's earlier reporting.
Red Cross Steps In for Displaced Families
The American Red Cross was on scene Monday to assist residents left without housing. The organization's Southeast Louisiana Chapter deploys Disaster Action Teams around the clock to multi-family fires across the region, providing emergency financial assistance, temporary lodging, food, and casework support to displaced households, according to the American Red Cross.
Monday's fire is not the first time smoke has disrupted life for Terrytown residents this summer. Two weeks earlier, on July 31, a massive multi-vehicle fire at a Plaquemines Parish storage yard sent a dense smoke plume drifting across Terrytown and the broader West Bank, prompting a wave of emergency calls to local fire dispatchers, as previously detailed in Hoodline's coverage of the Belle Chasse RV fire.
Terrytown, founded in 1960, is an unincorporated census-designated place on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish with roughly 24,700 residents and a median household income of $51,718, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The exact cause of Monday's fire, the extent of any structural damage inside the building's walls, and the total financial loss have not yet been determined.
