DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. (WSVN) — A firefighter’s body camera captured an incredible rescue, as a fellow firefighter caught a child thrown from a burning building.
Fox 5 reports the massive fire broke out at an apartment complex in Jan. 3 in DeKalb County, Georgia. As firefighters rushed to rescue the occupants inside, a father in a third-story unit was trying to get his children out safely.
Now dramatic video from a firefighter’s helmet has just been released, showing the father on a ladder as he threw his daughter into the arms of Cpt. Scott Stroup, who was waiting below.
The footage shows Stroup catching the little girl, then running away from the fire to bring her to safety before collapsing to his knees.
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The father sustained second-degree burns while trying to get the children safe from his third-floor balcony, according to Fox 5.
“We were catching babies like a football, literally,” Capt. Eric Jackson told reporters. “There were adults that were on the balcony that were dropping their babies right into our arms. We had a couple firefighters catching babies, so it was just really incredible.”
Stroup wasn’t the only one to catch one of the eight children rescued in the blaze. Cpt. Jackie Peckrul caught another child who was tossed from the burning building by adults from an overhead balcony.
“That was the only thing running through my mind… ‘Lord, let me catch this baby,'” she told Fox 5.
The fire displaced about 80 people, while about a dozen suffered smoke inhalation during the blaze.
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