HUDSON, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A group of off-duty first responders from Hudson is being credited with saving a house that caught fire on Monday morning. It happened around 7:20 a.m., on Maple Avenue in Greenport.

The rising smoke caught the attention of a couple of Hudson DPW workers, a Hudson Police Sergeant, and a former patrolman, all of whom happened to be passing through the area. As the men converged on the scene, they found the homeowner unsuccessfully trying to put out the fire with a garden hose.

The group shoveled dirt onto the fire and used buckets of water to ultimately extinguish it. Firefighters from the Greenport Fire Department made sure the house would not reignite.

Hudson City Police Chief L. Edward Moore recognized DPW members Frank Rogers and Pete Wrigley, former patrolman Kevin Sweet, and Sergeant Jason Finn for their timely response. “A firefighter told me the fire was only a few minutes away from destroying the house,” he noted.