A vigilant neighbor on Maxwelton Road noticed smoke coming from a nearby beach house Tuesday.

Luckily for the house’s owners and its renters, who had stepped out to take in the sunny weather and left bacon cooking on parchment paper in the oven, the neighbor is a retired firefighter, said Mike Cotton, a South Whidbey Fire/EMS deputy chief.

The bacon was left in the oven too long and eventually caught fire, thoroughly smoking the house.

“The fats in the food got hot enough in the oven that eventually it ignited,” Cotton said.

“Unfortunately we lost the bacon.”

The neighbor used his fire extinguisher to snuff out the flames.

District firefighters used an electric fan to blow smoke out of the Maxwelton Beach home and turned off power to the oven as a precaution, Cotton said.

No one was injured by the burned bacon or the smoke.