Screenshot/CBS Dallas
Dozens of people escaped unscathed from a raging Dallas apartment building fire on Wednesday thanks to quick-thinking bystanders—one of whom caught a baby tossed down from the third floor. About 40 residents of the Meadows at Ferguson apartments have been displaced ahead of the holidays as a result of the early-morning blaze, in which three people were injured, including a firefighter, authorities say. One of the residents, Shuntara Thomas, was trapped on the third floor with her 1-year-old baby as the flames closed in, leaving her no choice but to drop her baby. “It was terrifying,” she told WFAA-TV. “I didn’t know if I was going to come down with her or if that would be the last time that I was holding my child.” Her baby was rescued by a complete stranger, Byron Campbell, who happened to be passing by and came over to help. “The young mother was holding her baby and yelling, ‘Can somebody catch my baby?’ I just said, ‘Trust me, I’ll catch her!’” Campbell told The Dallas Morning News. “I just told the mom I wouldn’t drop the baby. Then she let go and I caught it. I held on like a football and didn’t let go,” he said in separate comments to WFAA-TV. The baby had reportedly inhaled some smoke and was taken to a hospital along with her mother, where both were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.