Watch this firefighter's perfect catch of child thrown from blazing building

Helmet footage shows the fireman catching a child tossed from the third-floor balcony of a burning apartment building. Photo / DeKalb County Professional Firefighters Association.

Firefighters raced to save families, including children, who were trapped in a burning apartment building in Decatur, Georgia Their plan was to extend their ladders, get onto the balcony of the apartments and bring the occupants down.

But before they could make it all the way, frightened adults started tossing children to the firefighters ascending the ladder.

What happened next was captured in a heart-stopping video from a helmet camera worn by a firefighter. The video footage was released this past weekend.

As frantic screams are heard, the footage shows a father dropping his 5-year-old child from the third-floor balcony. Captain Scott Stroup makes the incredible catch. The child lands upside down in Stroup's arms, and Stroup twists his knee in the process.

"We were catching babies like a football — literally," DeKalb fire Captain Eric Jackson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "There were adults that were on the balcony that were dropping their babies right into our arms. We had a couple firefighters catching babies, so it was just really incredible."

Captain Jackie Peckrul told Inside Edition she caught a 4-week-old boy who was dropped from a balcony.

"The original plan was to get up on the balcony with them to assist them on the ladder and have somebody else bring them down. I got about halfway up and I look up and somebody was dropping a baby to me," she said.

The fire injured 12 people, including eight children. An estimated 50 people were displaced, according to WSB-TV.

The fire is under investigation.