This is the heroic moment a quick-thinking off-duty firefighter saves a choking nine-month-old baby girl.

Fireman Jeferson Antunes Borges, 47, was on the balcony of his house waiting for a delivery when he noticed a taxi pulling up on the street in Praia Grande, on the coast of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, on Friday, January 3.

The driver, who was the baby's grandfather, was trying to help his granddaughter, Maria Julia Lima Oliveira, who was sick and choking on her vomit.

CCTV footage shows the firefighter working to save the young baby girl in front of her distressed parents, Jessica Karina Pereira de Lima and Guilherme Felicio Oliveira, and her paternal grandfather.

The family is from Carapicuiba and was travelling along the coast when the baby began choking.

Jessica told local media it was a 'divine coincidence' that they had stopped the vehicle right before a firefighter's house.

She said: 'I took a first aid course, but at that moment, I couldn't act, I lost my footing and could only scream for help.

'Thank God, Corporal Antunes was there to help us.'

Jeferson said he was home on Friday due to unforeseen circumstances on his day off.

He said: 'I had made several plans. My wife is a teacher, my daughter is on holiday, so we were going to leave the house that day to go for a walk, but in the end, nothing worked out.'

Jeferson added it had been hot that day, so he ordered a refreshing acai. He was waiting for the delivery when he noticed the taxi.

He said: 'There was a car doing a manoeuvre there that looked strange, it was out of the ordinary. I watched it. The taxi driver got out quickly, left the car badly parked and got in the back seat.'

He noticed the driver had taken the baby from the back seat and started first aid to stop her choking.

Jeferson began giving them instructions but realised that everybody was very nervous, so he decided to go down and help.

He said: 'It's important to open up the airways as quickly as possible so that the brain does not run out of oxygen.

'Right at the beginning, she stopped choking, but she didn't come back completely, she still had some problem.

'I picked up the baby while she was still in the correct position, went to the car, got in and said: 'Come on, come on, let's go'.

'The hardest part was not doing the manoeuvre, it was controlling the people who were emotionally involved with the baby so that we could get to the nearest ER [Emergency Room] without having an accident.'

The baby was taken to the hospital, where doctors confirmed she had been choking on her vomit and saliva because she was ill.

She is now said to be recovering after her ordeal.

The Heimlich manoeuvre, also known as abdominal thrusts, is a first-aid technique used to help someone choking due to a foreign object obstructing their airway. It is designed to expel the object by creating pressure in the abdomen.