Dramatic video footage has emerged showing a hero firefighter catching a baby who was dropped by parents from the third floor of a burning apartment building.
The fire took place in Decatur, Georgia at the Avondale Forest Apartments on January 3.
Captain Jackie Peckrul, a ‘super mom’ of triplets, was one of the DeKalb County firefighters who responded to the fire, which left 80 people homeless, according to WAGA-TV.
Dramatic video footage has emerged Saturday showing a hero firefighter catching a baby who was dropped by parents from the third floor of a burning apartment building
The fire took place in Decatur, Georgia at the Avondale Forest Apartments on January 3. The image above shows Fire Captain Scott Stroup catching one of the children thrown off the third-floor balcony of a burning apartment in Decatur, Georgia
Miraculously, just one person suffered second-degree burns as a result of the blaze.
Peckrul, a 14-year veteran at the department, said the situation was particularly dire when she and her fellow firefighters arrived to the burning complex.
‘You immediately saw flames and you could hear their screams,’ she recalled.
Peckrul got to work. She took the ladder from the fire truck and climbed up halfway toward the third-floor balcony.
The Ragland family of 12 people, including eight children, lived in the apartment that was trapped by the raging fire.
As Peckrul climbed halfway up the ladder, she said: ‘I see blue coming.’
‘It was a blue blanket all wrapped up and my hands came off the ladder and I had got him,’ she said.
Peckrul said she received no warning that the family was going to drop a baby out of the balcony.
‘I think they thought I was expecting it,’ she said.
Peckrul then helped the rest of the family climb out of their apartment.
A helmet camera worn by one of the firefighters at the scene shows Captain Scott Stroup catching an older sibling of the baby.
Peckrul, Stroup, and the rest of their comrades are being hailed as heroes after rescuing a number of people, including one in a wheelchair.
‘The only thing running through my mind was, “Lord, let me catch this baby”,’ Peckrul told WAGA-TV.
‘I can’t imagine the fear that the mom was facing. I was thinking about her child first.’
Peckrul, a 14-year veteran at the department, said the situation was particularly dire when she and her fellow firefighters arrived to the burning complex.
‘You immediately saw flames and you could hear their screams,’ she recalled.
Peckrul got to work. She took the ladder from the fire truck and climbed up halfway toward the third-floor balcony.
The Ragland family of 12 people, including eight children, lived in the apartment that was trapped by the raging fire.
As Peckrul climbed halfway up the ladder, she said: ‘I see blue coming.’
‘It was a blue blanket all wrapped up and my hands came off the ladder and I had got him,’ she said.
Peckrul said she received no warning that the family was going to drop a baby out of the balcony.
‘I think they thought I was expecting it,’ she said.
Peckrul then helped the rest of the family climb out of their apartment.
‘There’s no better feeling in the world [than saving the lives of people and their children],’ Peckrul said.
‘Never want to see any parent lose a child,’ she said.
Lance Ragland, the father who tossed his two children out of the apartment and was the last to be rescued, suffered second-degree burns.
He was released from the hospital after an overnight stay.
Now he and his family of 12 face the next hurdle – recovering economically after everything they had was destroyed.
‘Failure is not an option, failure is never an option when it comes to protecting family,’ he told WAGA-TV when asked what was going through his mind on that fateful night.
Ragland said the fire got closer and time was running out to save his family.
‘I felt warm, then one time it got really hot, that pushed me to go faster,’ he said.
One by one, Ragland helped his family climb out of the balcony and onto the ladder.
Ragland also threw his newborn twins out the window hoping that the firefighters below would catch them.
‘From my end, I’m looking at a checklist, I couldn’t see what everybody else was doing,’ said Ragland.
‘At the bottom, [it’s a] whole other world going on because they’re catching the rush that I’m sending down and I’m not giving no space.’
After he had gotten everyone out, Ragland was the last to leave. He suffered burns to his back, but he didn’t mind.
‘Anything happens to me, I’m okay, but to y’all no,’ said Ragland.
The family is now staying with relatives until they could get back on their feet.
A GoFundMe page was started by a relative to help cover the costs of rent and other expenses, including diapers and baby formula.
‘We’re just trying to figure out how we’re going to rebuild but we’re together and we will figure it out,’ said Ragland.