Flames shoot out the window of house at 37 Elm Place this afternoon. (Thanks to Robert Wainwright for this photo.)

A fast-moving fire did extensive damage to a Red Bank house this afternoon. Firefighters quickly brought the blaze under control.

The blaze, reported at about 3:20p, swept the second floor and attic of the single-family structure at 37 Elm Place.

Doug Muckley, whose mother, Janice, owns the house, said he was headed upstairs to take a shower when he saw smoke. “I tried to go in there, but I got the top of my head singed,” he told redbankgreen.

Witnesses said firefighters were on the scene in about four minutes, just as flames were shooting above the peak of the roof and rapidly burning through vinyl siding on the structure.

There was no immediate report on the cause of the blaze.

Second Lieutenant Diana DeFazio of the Relief Engine Company peers from a second-floor window of the burning house.

Firefighters bring the blaze under control.

Doug Muckley escaped the fire shirtless and shoeless.