NORTHUMBERLAND — A woman and her baby escaped injury after a fire broke out Thursday in her kitchen as she was preparing dinner.

Desrae Holden, of 435 Second St., said she was boiling oil on her stove at about 6:15 p.m. when she paused and momentarily went upstairs.

“When I came back, the oil had exploded into fire and shot into our cabinets,” she said. Her husband was at work when the fire started.

Holden said she wanted to extinguish the fire herself, but she wasn’t sure where the extinguisher was because the family had moved into the house on Saturday. Thinking of the baby, she evacuated the home and went to a next-door neighbor’s house.

Northumberland Fire Department Chief Jim Troup said: “We put it out quickly. The damage was not real extensive and was limited to the stove area and cabinets.” He could not give a damage estimate.

Responding to the blaze were fire department and rescue personnel from Northumberland, Point Township and Shamokin Dam.