An off-duty firefighter is credited with saving dozens of residents from a blaze that broke out inside an apartment complex on Webster Avenue Friday.

Officials say the fire started inside a first-floor barber shop at around 3 p.m. and quickly spread to neighboring apartments. At the time of the blaze, off-duty firefighter Dan Lopuzzo was filling up his car at a nearby gas station.

"I was on the phone actually with my girlfriend," he says. "And the fire broke out right in front of me."

After reporting the blaze to the local fire department, Lopuzzo rushed to the burning building and held back the flames with a single hose until a ladder truck arrived five minutes later.

"We just got a raise," Lopuzzo says. "I figure I got to earn some of my new money, come and do some stuff off duty."