LAUDERHILL, FLA. (WSVN) - Fire crews were able to contain fierce flames that erupted in the kitchen of a Lauderhill home.

Lauderhill Fire Rescue units responded to the scene of the blaze along the 5600 block of Northwest 21st Street, Thursday afternoon.

Officials said the living room of the house sustained a little bit of damage.

7News also captured broken windows around the house.

Fire officials said, when it gets very hot very fast inside, it makes it harder for them to fight the flames, so they had to break the impact windows to battle the flames.

“It keeps all the smoke from escaping from an apartment. It’s almost like a pressure cooker and that smoke pressurizes inside that apartment and it builds and builds and the heat is trapped inside that apartment,” Lauderhill Fire Department Assistant Chief Jerry Gonzalez.

According to fire rescue, a father and his daughter were inside the house when the fire ignited. The father smelled smoke and decided to evacuate the home along with his child and dog.

“It smelled like a burning smell, first coming from the second floor, and then he looked, and he saw smoke and the flames coming from the kitchen,” said Gonzalez.

Two cats were later found by fire officials after being initially unaccounted for. They are both safe.

Neighbors witnessed the evacuation of the home and saw the man panicking.

“The guy was terrified. He was holding a kid in his hand, in his arms, and everything. The dog, it’s crazy,” said Giovanna Melo. “I saw the smoke coming out and I was like ‘Wow! What happened?'”

No injuries were reported.

No other homes were severely affected.

The affected family said there is a big and expensive cleanup ahead.

The unit’s owner said the impact windows came from a recent renovation to the home that was underway for the past several months. This renovation included new wiring, drywall, appliances, and flooring. She said that all of that will now have to be replaced.

Unfortunately, she said, she was recently dropped by her insurance company.

Fire officials said it remains unclear what started the kitchen fire.

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