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Off-Duty Firefighter Saves Woman From Fire On His Way To Work

BROCKTON (CBS) --An off-duty firefighter is being credited with rescuing a bedridden woman from a fire on his way to work Wednesday morning.

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Woman rescued from her bed during a fire (Photo Courtesy: Marc Vasconcellos | Brockton Enterprise)

According to the Brockton Fire Department, a call reporting a fire on Woodward Avenue came in at 6:41 a.m. but John McLaughlin, an off-duty firefighter, was first on the scene after receiving an alert on his phone.

Inside, McLaughlin found a woman laying in a hospital bed surrounded by smoke. A fire had started on some papers in a chair next to the bed, said the Fire Department.

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A woman was taken to the hospital as a precaution after she was rescued from her home during a fire (Photo Courtesy: Marc Vasconcellos | Brockton Enterprise)

"Part of my training just kicked in and sensed that there might be somebody in there," he recalled.

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John McLaughlin, an off-duty firefighter who rescued a woman from a home (WBZ-TV)

He was able to carry the woman out safely and she was taken to Brockton Hospital as a precaution.

"I didn't worry about the fire, my concern was life safety--and then property--was to get her out of there away from the fire," said McLaughlin.

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