An arson investigator has been called to a vacant apartment building on Tuesday night because of a fire a district chief said could have quickly grown into “a large incident.”

Dayton crews arrived at 227 Basswood Ave. at about 9:13 p.m. to find a large amount of fire on the second floor, District Chief Peter Whitby said.

“They knocked it down before it spread to a common attic. They kept it from burning into a large incident,” Whitby said, praising the work of his crews. The fire was placed under control at about 9:38 p.m., according to Montgomery County Regional Dispatch communications.

“We had a tremendous amount of fire when we got here. These can grow out of control really quickly if we don’t make a quick knock-down of the fire.”

There were no injuries reported, Whitby said, and there were no reports that anyone was living in the two-story building.

It was too soon to estimate the damage done in terms of dollars and cents or whether the investigator could conclude the fire was suspicious, he said.

At about 10 p.m., Whitby estimated that Basswood Avenue would be closed to traffic at Riverside Drive at least two hours.

He encouraged anyone who has information about the fire, or who saw anything, to call fire headquarters at (937) 333-4500 or the department’s arson bureau at (937) 333-FIRE.