Two people were injured in a house fire Monday afternoon in Palmerton.

Borough fire Chief Jason Behler said the call came in at 12:50 p.m. for a house fire at 554 Franklin Ave.

“The homeowner was out front, said her kitchen was on fire,” Behler said. “I went to the front door, smoke was filling the entire first floor. I went back around the back of the house to check and there were neighbors trying to put out the fire, so we got them out. We could see that there was some active fire in the wall of the ceiling.”

Behler said he believes there were four people inside at the time the fire broke out at 554 Franklin Ave.

He said one man inside injured his hand trying to get out of the house. Additionally, Behler said a neighbor who was trying to put the fire out had suffered smoke inhalation, but believes he refused treatment.

Behler said the fire was under control within about 25 minutes.

He said that besides some light smoke damage on the first floor, the fire was contained to the kitchen, and did not extend any further.

Behler said it was a twin home, but that the 556 side was recently sold and there was no one living there.

“We did get into that half of the building because there was smoke on that side,” he said. “There was no damage or fire at the 556 side of the house.”

Behler said the cause of the fire was cooking on the stove.

“The crew that went in to do the fire attack did a quick job knocking the bulk of the fire down,” he said. “In conjunction with the help of the neighbor probably helped contain the fire just to the kitchen.”

Behler said also assisting at the scene were the Aquashicola Fire Department and Palmerton Ambulance, while the Bowmanstown Fire Department and Walnutport Rapid Intervention Team were canceled while en route.

“We were very fortunate for a daytime response to have the number of firefighters respond that we did. A lot of other areas might not be as fortunate,” he said. “That really helped out with the fire attack, smoke removal, and checking with extension. It really played well into our hands, we couldn’t have asked for much better.”