Mom Trapped in Fire Drops Baby, Toddler 2 Stories to Safety

A mother trapped by a fire in her Sydney apartment safely dropped her 2-day-old baby and 2 year-old toddler from a second-floor window to rescuers, the AP reports. The children were uninjured by the fire and their 20-foot fall on Thursday night in suburban Lakemba, Police Senior Constable Jamie Wallace said. Their 27-year-old mother was rescued by firefighters using a ladder and was taken to hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation and cuts, Fire and Rescue Superintendent Adam Dewberry said.

The children were rescued before emergency services arrived and the details were sketchy. Dewberry said the baby boy was caught by people holding a bed sheet over scattered mattresses. He was not sure how the toddler was caught. A neighbor, who was not named, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that her father and a friend caught both children "in a piece of cloth" held over mattresses. Dewberry said the mother was in the window with hot smoke billowing over her and was about to jump when the firefighters arrived. (More uplifting news stories.)