Officers Catch Babies In Apartment Fire
Frightened Tenants Drop Babies From Balcony

POSTED: 9:21 am CST December 5, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY --
Police officers rescued babies from a burning apartment building early Saturday.

Officer Anthony Pundsack and his partner were driving in the area of Northwest 10th and Purdue streets when they noticed smoke coming from an apartment building. When they got closer and spotted flames, they rushed to the building to alert anyone who might be inside.

Tenants on the second floor had to escape through their balconies. Pundsack said that he and other officers helped to catch babies that people dropped from those balconies.

"They were holding them by the arms. They were pretty frantic and pretty scared," he said. "At first, we thought they were going to drop them. We were yelling commands to them to just slow down, but they ended up dropping a couple. We were able to catch them, luckily."

Everyone made it out of the fire safely. Firefighters said they were able to contain the fire to two apartments, but two adjacent units sustained smoke damage.

Firefighters said they believe the fire started with a mattress, but they said they didn't yet know how it ignited.

Crews said that a broken hydrant in the area slowed their ability to start putting out the flames.

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