Attribute it to adrenaline or a mother's natural instincts. One mom's quick thinking when her apartment building caught fire likely saved her children's lives.
A fire on the ground floor of 23-year-old Ashley Brown's Georgia apartment building sent smoke into her third-story home. Fearing she could not escape through the front door, Brown stepped out on her balcony where she decided to use rope to lower her two children to safety, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports. Neighbors below vowed to catch them.
"I tried to get my body out as far as I could out the window," Brown told WSBTV. "I held [my son] gently and I dropped him gently, and he landed just fine."
Her neighbor Lawrence Fort caught the baby with a big coat.
"I told her I promised her I would catch it. So I had to catch the baby," Brown's neighbor Fort told ABC News.
Brown actually attempted this three times, according to ABC. After her 2-month-old son and 3-year-old daughter reached the ground, she also tried to help her mother-in-law escape, but fire fighters and rescue workers arrived at the scene,
Footage of Brown's heroic act was captured on a cellphone video, but hers was not the only impressive survival story from the incident, WSBTV reports. People climbed out of their apartments "like Spiderman," and a cat survived a three-story fall.
