SHAWNEE COUNTY (KSNT) – An off-duty firefighter saved the day for one homeowner west of Topeka.

What started out as a day involving garden work quickly turned into a call to action for firefighter Jeremy Steimel. That’s because he noticed a fire coming from his neighbor’s house.

“For some reason looked over and saw smoke and thought ‘man, that don’t look right,'” Steimel said. “Kind of all my last years of being on fire department kind of just kicked in, I went to work.”

John Cantrell was at work when he got a call from his wife saying he needed to come home. Thankfully, due to the swift actions of his neighbor, Cantrell came home to his house intact instead of in flames.

“This could of been a lot worse, but because of good neighbors we have a little bit of damage instead of a lot of bit of damage,” Cantrell said.

“Pulled off siding, got deeper into it, moved everything away so nothing caught on fire or kept burning or smoldering,” Steimel said. “After that, it was out and the fire department showed up and here we are.”

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