Crews responded to an air conditioner malfunction Thursday morning at a senior apartment complex in Palmerton.

Kyle Behler, safety officer, Palmerton Fire Department, safety officer, said firefighters were dispatched at 9:06 a.m. to the Palmer House, 360 Delaware Ave., for a possible high occupancy structure fire.

Behler said there were smoke conditions on the third floor as part of two separate incidents at the same time on the same floor.

He said one was the result of an air conditioning unit, and the other was due to burned food in another apartment on the same floor.

Behler said smoke was cleared and air monitoring was done. The residents had to be evacuated from the apartment complex.

“When a fire alarm goes off, the facility has a self-evacuation plan,” Behler said. “We did have some crews in the stairwells assisting with anyone who needed help getting down the stairs, we investigated the affected (third) floor, made sure everybody was OK, then headed up to the fourth and fifth floors to investigate the smoke conditions up there. (There was) very little to no smoke found on both the fourth and fifth floors.”

He said the event was determined to be a nonemergency, nonlife threatening situation before the evacuation was 100% complete, and residents were allowed to go back to their units once the smoke was cleared fully around 9:45 a.m.

Behler estimated the residents were evacuated for about 15 to 20 minutes, and that there were no injuries.

Behler said Aquashicola Fire Company, Bowmanstown Fire Company, Diamond Fire Company of Walnutport’s RIT team, Palmerton Police Department, Palmerton Ambulance, and Lehighton ALS assisted at the scene.

“Everything was handled very well, and we appreciate all the other responding agencies that assisted with us,” he said. “Even though it was not a serious emergency, we were set up and had the manpower as if it was.”