Video Captures Rescue, Fireman Says "We Were Catching Babies Like a Football"
The new year of 2018 didn’t start off quietly for the DeKalb County Fire Department outside Atlanta.
It started off heroically.
And a video going viral on Tuesday shows exactly why.
Take a look at this dramatic footage.
Warning: The rescue about 53 seconds into the video is heart-stopping.
On Jan. 3, firefighters from the Dekalb County Fire Deparment responded to a blaze that had broken out at a local apartment complex, the Avondale Forest Apartments. WXIA reports that fire Capt. Eric Jackson said that about 20 apartment units were affected by the fire, with 12 people injured, eight of them children.
Several more people were rescued, one of which was seen in this dramatic video.
The video shows one of the firefighters making his way to the blaze at the apartments. Then, in a desperate attempt to save a life, a man is seen throwing a child to the firefighter, who made an amazing catch.
Jackson told WXIA, “I mean we were catching babies like footballs, literally.”
“It was literally all-hands-on-deck,” he said. “Before we had even put a hose line on the fire, we had firefighters that were bringing adults out, we had a firefighter that was catching babies, one after another.”
Capt. Jackie Peckrul was one of the brave firefighters who caught one of the babies. WAGA reports that Peckrul got to the ladder to help, but the next thing she noticed was “a baby wrapped in a blanket falling.”
She told WAGA, “That was the only thing running through my mind… ‘Lord, let me catch this baby.'”
“My hands came off the ladder and I got em’,” she said. She said she then took the baby to emergency crews, who took care of the child.
It was after that incident that we see Capt. Scott Stroup make the epic catch seen in the video.
When asked how she felt, Peckrul said, “There’s no better feeling in the world. Never want to see any parent lose a child.”
And that’s why firefighters and their families across the country deserve our respect. Day in and day out, they put their lives on the line as they do whatever it takes to save the lives of daughters, sons, mothers, and fathers.
Our hats are off to the men and women who daily make this sacrifice. You are among the many people who truly make America great.
H/T TheBlaze
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