BATON ROUGE — Just one week after demolition orders came down from the mayor's office to demolish Baton Rouge's abandoned OYO Hotel, work is already underway on the teardown of the Mead Road property. 

As of Tuesday evening, a third of the blighted property had already been demolished.

Mayor-President Sid Edwards ordered the demolition of the abandoned OYO Hotel as part of his ongoing campaign against blight in the city-parish. Before the teardown began, the building sat abandoned for at least two years and had become a hot spot for squatters and criminal activity, Edwards said.

Several homeless people were living in the blighted hotel, officials added.

Hours before the demolition was announced, Baton Rouge Fire crews responded to the hotel to find a fire had broken out on its second floor.