Watch: Man tosses child out apartment widow to escape fire in New Jersey
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A New Jersey police department shared body camera footage of a father and child's harrowing escape from a devastating apartment fire.
Emergency responders were called to the South Ridge Apartment Complex on Route 522 just after 8 a.m. Monday for reports of a fire.
The South Brunswick Police Department said heavy fire engulfed the second and third stories of the building and three nearby companies responded to the fire.
As emergency responders were arriving, police said a man was spotted in the window of a second floor apartment and appeared to be trapped by the growing fire.
Three officers and a firefighter rushed underneath the window and encouraged the man to toss down his young child.
"Pass the baby down, pass the baby!" one officer is heard yelling on body camera footage shared by the department.
Suddenly, the child flies into frame and is caught by the waiting officers.
Police then encourage the man to jump from the window to escape the growing fire. He plummets into the frame and his fall is braced by nearby shrubbery.
The father and the child sustained minor injuries, according to the department.
Nearly 50 people were displaced by the blaze.
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