Ashley Brown, mother of a three-year-old girl rescued her daughter from a burning building by tossing her from a third-story window.
Ashley Brown, 23, from Stone Mountain, Georgia, said her first thought was to save her two babies when a fire broke out from a ground floor apartment, leaving the family trapped inside.
A video footage shows the frantic Ashley Brown manoeuvring her toddler down the building, after dropping her six-month-old son into a stranger’s arms.
Lawrence Fort caught the baby moments after a kitchen fire broke out in his apartment.
After pounding on neighbours’ doors to alert them of the fire, Lawrence Fort saw the family of three was trapped, grabbed a fluffy coat and yelled to the mother to drop her baby into his arms.
Ashley Brown said dropping the baby was “the most difficult decision of her life”, according to local TV station Channel 2.
The mother-of-two also told AJC.com: “Some people were saying drop him. And some people were saying don’t.
“He looked at me and I looked at him. I said <<Please catch my baby>>. He said, <<I promise I will>>, and he caught him.”
From the balcony, Ashley Brown dropped her baby, James. Then, the woman tied a rope to her three-year-old daughter Jayda’s waist and arm, and lowered the child to a crowd of neighbours.
The incident was captured on a cell phone with video showing the rope slipping from the toddler’s ankle and catching her at the ankle as the child tumbles into a crowd below.
Ashley Brown was reportedly helping her mother-in-law, Denise Watson, to safety when fire and rescue officials arrived to the scene, and she was rescued.
According to AJC, fire damaged the building in the 500 block of 3 Oaks Bend after starting at approximately 6:45 p.m.
DeKalb Police Officer Miguel Anchundia said authorities also helped two other women trapped in another apartment on the third floor.
It was reported that a cat also survived after being tossed from a third-floor window.
According to police, four people, including the children, were transported to a hospital in stable condition. AJC reports Ashley Brown’s both children are doing fine after the ordeal.
