— Raleigh police on Friday arrested Anthony Ridley and charged him with arson for setting a Thursday night fire that displaced dozens of people from an apartment building in east Raleigh.

According to Raleigh Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Coppage, 29 people from the three-story building at 313 Roselle Court lost their homes.

Six apartment units were lost and 12 apartment units were damaged and it took responders 53 minutes to get the fire under control. The Red Cross is helping 31 people who were forced out of their homes due to the fire.

Police charged Ridley, 34, who lived in the building, with starting the fire.

Surrounding buildings were evacuated while firefighters brought the blaze under control.

"My brother was crying because we had lots of stuff in there and we'd only been there two weeks," said Alexis, who lives nearby.

Neighbors told WRAL News that they heard Ridley arguing with a woman in the hours before they fire. They said the couple had two children that had only lived in the apartment for a short time.

Ridley was being held in the Wake County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.