Days after a discarded cigarette butt started an Easter Sunday fire that destroyed a Duluth apartment building, discarded smoking materials may have caused another apartment fire two blocks away Friday.

The Duluth Fire Department responded to a fire call at an apartment building on the 1500 block of East Third Street at 11:07 a.m. Friday, Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Edwards said. The fire crew arrived to find a smoldering fire in a wall that caused less than $1,000 in damage, he said. The cause is still under investigation, but the suspected cause is improper disposal of smoking materials.

Earlier this week, 44 people were displaced after a fire destroyed a 20-unit, three-story apartment building on the 1700 block of East Second Street. Damage from that fire has been estimated at $900,000.

In the wake of Friday's fire, Edwards reminded people to properly dispose of smoking materials. Cigarettes should be put out entirely every time and both the cigarette butts and ashes should be soaked in water before being thrown away when emptying an ashtray, authorities said. Ashtrays should have a stable base that is hard to tip over and shouldn't be put on sofas and chairs.