AN OFF-DUTY firefighter’s early intervention stopped a fire from spreading to and damaging two properties.

David Alcock has been a trainee on-call firefighter at North Berwick Fire Station for the past two years; he is currently undertaking a three-year trainee course and is completing it at the North Berwick station.

On Easter Monday, he visited Smeaton Nursery Gardens, between East Linton and Tyninghame.

He was driving home to North Berwick with his wife and children at about 4pm when he noticed smoke billowing from a group of houses on East Linton’s The Glebe

It was first thought the flames were from a bonfire but, due to it being so windy, David was not so sure.

The Farquharson Rest resident, who is also a graphic designer, said: “It was so windy I thought: ‘No one is having a bonfire’, and there is so much smoke that you could sort of tell and I faintly knew it wasn’t from a normal bonfire.

“So I swung the car round and drove into the cul-de-sac, and I ran around and down through into the garden.

“A man was there sort of panicking and you could see a hedge was on fire and all the grass was scorched. He was panicking, it was quite a big fire and there was a lot of smoke.

“So I asked him if he had a hose and he panicked but he got his hose from the garage and we put that on, but he disappeared and I went round to the side of the house where the guttering was melting, the bins had melted and some garden furniture and some of an outhouse was also alight.”

But it was thanks to his firefighter training that he was able to prevent the fire from spreading and causing damage to the nearby houses.

He does not know what caused the fire.

David was wearing shorts at the time and said he could feel the heat from the fire on his legs.

The 47-year-old added: “Rather than spray the hedge, I was spraying the house.

“What we normally do is try and keep the house cool just so that doesn’t catch light.

“As I was spraying the water on it, it was steaming so the heat was definitely affecting the house. The hedge was only a metre or two or so away from it.

“I was spraying water on the eves and on a bit of the roof and the wall to stop that catching fire and stop it from spreading into the roof space.”

As soon as David noticed the smoke and stopped the car, he called 999 to ask for a fire crew to attend, thinking that someone else had done the same thing; however, he believes he may have been the only caller.

After speaking to a fellow North Berwick crew member who also works in the control room, the East Linton crew went to the fire.

On their arrival, David assisted them, ensuring the man affected was alright before driving back home.

A couple of days later, crews from both North Berwick and East Linton fire stations attended a call together, where the extent of David’s efforts was revealed.

David said he had not mentioned what happened to any of his crew-mates so was quite shocked when he found out that the East Linton crew had praised his efforts and his North Berwick crew-mates were asking him questions about the incident.

He added that anyone who came across a similar sight would have done the same thing.

A spokesperson for North Berwick Fire Station said: “Without his help, the fire would have spread to two buildings.”