A blazing house fire on Tuesday morning in Slatington melted siding on a neighboring house and damaged a mirror on a fire engine.

Slatington Fire Department was dispatched at 1:49 a.m. to a dwelling fire at 209 Center St., which quickly escalated to a second alarm.

“The fire was a real inferno,” said Assistant Chief Ron Hausman.

Hausman said the house was fully involved when the department arrived.

The north side of the home came crashing down just as the firemen were getting ready to fight the fire.

The fire was just so intense that it just blew out windows from surrounding homes.

One firefighter was taken to the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for a medical emergency, but is OK and released.

State police and borough fire marshals are investigating, Hausman said.

He said he is grateful for the way all of the fire companies worked together to save the surrounding homes. Walnutport, Lehigh Township, Emerald, Slatedale, Neffs, Palmerton, Friedens and EMS from Northern Valley and Palmerton were on scene.

Center Street was closed from Union to Williams will be closed for the morning. Crews remained on scene until 11 a.m.