A column of smoke towered above Uptown where flames could be seen from Loyola’s campus, 12 blocks away.

A 5-alarm fire engulfed two Uptown homes at approximately 4:15 p.m. Friday. It began at 1677 Robert St. and spread to an adjacent home.

No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is unknown and pending investigation.

The fire originated in an unoccupied condominium undergoing renovations, said Robert Schmidt, owner of the property. The fire jumped to the adjacent apartment home, which consisted of six units with seven tenants. Police belive two tenants, who could not be reached, were out of town, said Charles Parent, Superintendent of the New Orleans Fire Department.

Police initially suspected an elderly woman to be trapped inside the adjacent home, but firefighters knocked on her door and helped her to safety. NOFD evacuated nearby homes immediately.

Six fire trucks assisted in dousing the homes and containing the blaze. Firefighters arrived within three minutes, according to Parent.

“It’s a tight street, but we were able to get our equipment in and have adequate water pressure. We did not have anything to hamper our firefighters’ efforts,” said Parent. He described the damage as “extremely heavy to both structures.”

One tenant from the adjacent house, Jean Pierre Guidry, stared blankly in shock as firefighters saturated both homes with water from different angles surrounding the area.

The two-story duplex, where the fire originated, was 104 years old and was three months away from finishing renovations.

Contractors worked on the house earlier Friday and superficial damages occurred to the homes nearest the fire, said Parent. He considered the first home to be a total loss, while the other could be renovated.

New Orleans Private Patrol assisted in crowd control of more than 100 spectators.

Contact info: Rosie Dao can be reached at [email protected] and Tara Templeton can be reached at [email protected].