DeKalb firefighter catches baby from burning building

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - It happened in a flash. A father desperate to save his child from the smoke and flames quickly filling his apartment, tossed his baby from the second floor of a burning apartment building.Fortunately, DeKalb County firefighter Robert Sutton, who was among the first firefighters to arrive at the Parks on Glenwood, caught the baby in one swift move.

"He was a little guy, so when I heard his father yelling 'Help', and saw him hanging out the window with the baby in his arms, I just went into action. I just did what any of the other firefighters out here would have done," Sutton told Fox 5's Portia Bruner Wednesday. "I just said 'Drop him.' He did and I am blessed to have been in a position to catch the baby," said Sutton, who grew up not far from the Glenwood Road apartment complex. "It was my first time in a situation like that," said Sutton.

It was a remarkable sight to see something like that. They wre on it," said master plumber Larry Carter, who recorded the rescue on his cell phone.

Carter and other contractors were doing renovations on the building next door when the fire erupted. He stopped to record the fire as the smoke started billowing from the windows. All of a sudden you heard a man screaming. When I heard there was a baby, my heart started fluttering. But the firefighters up to the window fast and the one guy just caught it like a football pass. It was something to see," said Carter.

Captain Tom Burrell was visibly moved as he watch the video of the rescue with Bruner.

"I just hope that this helps people understood the hard work and training that goes into being a firefighter," Captain Burrell said as he stood in front of the burned building Wednesday. "There's not really one thing that prepares you for what Firefighter Sutton and his colleagues encountered yesterday. It's good training. It's years of experience and having a good sense of situational awareness. I'm just really proud," he added.

Sutton, who has two young children of his own, is reluctant to take credit for the life saving catch. He says it just comes down to good training, great fellow firefighters and shared commitment to helping people in distress.

"I grew up in this community and it's just an honor to be able to help people here and work with the great guys I work with. We do this together and I'm just happy and blessed to be able to help that father and his baby. It's our job," said Sutton, who's been a Dekalb County Firefighter for ten years. "I'm just glad they were both ok," he said.