In the chaotic scene of residents fleeing from their burning apartment building and authorities rushing in to fight the blaze, cameras captured an incredible rescue in Sandy Springs, Georgia on Tuesday.
Neighbours noticed two girls trapped in a room on the third floor of the building before police were able to help and before the fire department had arrived.
Two young men rushed to the broken window as a panicked young woman leapt headfirst, nearly landing on her head before she was caught by the Good Samaritans.
Soon after, a younger girl came to the window and also jumped to safety into the arms of the neighbours.
“I heard someone banging on the window,” Diego Silva told NBC affiliate WXIA. “You could see the window all broken, so we just ran over there and helped them out.”
Video shot by a witness shows the neighbours carrying the younger girl to safety on a nearby lawn, followed by the older girl.
Two police officers were going door-to-door to ensure no one else remained in the building while the girls jumped from the window.
Dan Reilly, the photojournalist who captured the footage said the first thing he saw as soon as he arrived on scene was a girl pounding on a window, screaming for help.
“When you get out of the car and hear people yelling for their lives to get out of a window like this girl was doing, I kind of had to make a snap decision. Do I keep my role as a photojournalist or do I put the camera down and help?” he told WXIA.
As Reilly began to put his camera down, the two men rushed to the window and he knew he had to capture news as it happened.
A total of 29 people from 11 families lost their homes and possessions from the blaze, the cause is still under investigation.
WXIA reported that the older girl suffered lacerations to her arms from breaking open the window, and the younger girl had minor lacerations to her legs. Both are expected to make a full recovery.
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