(WALB) – Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

A car bursts into flames just as a firefighter was driving by.

That firefighter wasn’t on the clock, but he jumped in to help anyway.

Aaron Tomlinson has been a firefighter in Albany for eight years now.

He took some time off from fighting fires after the recent birth of his baby girl.

Instead, he was spending his days working for his lawn care and pressure washing business.

And on Monday, those two professions collided.

Tomlinson said he was leaving his last pressure washing job of the day Monday afternoon around 3., and as he drove along Forrester Parkway, he noticed a big cloud of smoke.

And as he got closer, he realized it was a car on fire.

He said his firefighter instinct immediately kicked in.

That’s when he used the hose on his pressure washer machine on the back of his work truck and put out the flames before firefighters arrived.

“We’re willing to do our duty on or off duty. It doesn’t matter,” said Tomlinson.  “Whenever we see something, and we’re there, we want to help. He was videoing it, and I didn’t even realize it. And it turned out to be a good video for that kind of situation.”

Watch the report HERE››