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There’s an old adage that firefighters are never off-duty, they’re just between fires.

North Glengarry Township firefighter Chris Decoste proved that to be true Tuesday morning, when he smelled smoke while working around Tweedsmuir Avenue in Ottawa.

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“I knew right away what it was,” Decoste said by telephone from his civilian alter-ego job as a building contractor.

“There’s a burn ban on. When you smell smoke, you’ve got to check it out.”

He found a fire burning on the corner of a house “around the corner on Byron Avenue.”

He phoned 911, then grabbed his firefighter gear and manned a garden house.

He was able to contain and mostly extinguish the flames until Ottawa firefighters from Station 23 arrived to fully extinguish them and to use thermal imaging gear to ensure that the fire had not spread.

“This could have been a large loss working fire if not discovered, reported & quickly addressed by FF Decoste,” Ottawa Fire Services spokeswoman Danielle Cardinal said.

“Great Save! Kudos,” Cardinal wrote on Twitter.

Decoste conceded, when asked, that the quick work on the fire would look good on his résumé. He’s looking for a full-time firefighting gig with “Ottawa, Cornwall … whoever comes first.

“But, seriously, it’s what I’m trained for.”

North Glengarry Fire Chief Patrick Gauthier, who explained that Descoste had been a volunteer firefighter around Glengarry for a about 10 years, said he “wasn’t surprised to hear Chris was involved.”

“He’s one of our best. It’s something I would expect to hear he would do.”