A young woman heard a smoke detector sound and discovered a kitchen fire when she returned  to a Green Street home at about 8:30 p.m., Monday, city fire officials said.

Dinah Melendez ran from the home at 57 Green St. She alerted neighbors who called the fire department and then ran to a corner store where she borrowed a fire extinguisher.

Melendez then raced back to the home and used the extinguisher to stop the fire from spreading, Battalion Chief Robert Pennypacker said.

"She had it pretty well knocked down when we got there," Pennypacker said. However, firefighters had plenty of work left as the kitchen was filled with smoke and firefighters had to punch  hole in the ceiling to reach all the hot spots.

The blaze did about $5,000 damage, Pennypacker estimated. There were no injuries.

Investigators  traced the cause of the fire to unattended cooking.

Melendez, whom fire officials thought was about 18 to 20 years old, had been cooking something on the stove when she left the home briefly to get bread. The burner was left on, and the woman heard the smoke detector sound when she got back, Pennypacker said.

Pedro Estrella owns the 2½ story row home which is near the intersection of Green Street and Pershing Avenue. Estrella also lives at the home, but he was at work at the time, fire officials said.

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