Video shows people jumping from 3rd floor window to escape fire that hurt 18

Dramatic new video obtained by Channel 2 Action News shows the frightening moments when more than a dozen people had to jump from several stories up to save their lives from a raging fire at a metro apartment complex.

The fire broke out Friday at the Farrington Village Apartments.

Witnesses said it happened so suddenly, that by the time some residents realized what was going on, it was too late to escape through a door into the hallway. The only way out was through a window.

Terry Nelson described to Channel 2′s Tom Regan how his mother, sister, nieces and nephews got trapped in their third-floor apartment by the fast-moving fire. He lives out of town.

“They tried to run to the door, but the door was on fire. My sister was like, ‘We got to get out, we got to get out!’ Jaquille said when he was in the window, he had to smack the fire out of his face,” Nelson said.

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He said his sister, Jacinda, led the charge to escape, hang-dropping from a third-floor window.

“She decided to jump first. If you saw the video, she went straight down. She broke her back,” Nelson said.

Then came his nieces and nephews.

“Somebody caught one of my little nephews. The other didn’t get caught and ended up breaking his arm, snapping it, breaking his leg,” Nelson said.

His mother and an older nephew were the last to go with not a second to waste.

“She’s 76-years-old and she said, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t do it.’ He said, ‘But we got to. The fire is coming down,’” Nelson said. “She looked back and there was a wall of fire on their heels and she passes out. Somebody brought a mattress down on the bottom. He had to throw her out. She landed on the mattress.”

Nelson said his mother broke her hip in the fall and suffered other injuries.

Laharyza Dunlap told Regan that she and her brother jumped from another third-floor apartment.

“That’s really high up. Did you get hurt,” Regan asked Dunlap.

“No, my arm. That’s it,” Dunlap said.

“Thank God they are all alive. Could have been a lot worse,” Dunalp’s brother, Javin Honary, said.

A total of 18 people were hurt in the fire. The cause is still under investigation.

At least 18 injured in fire at DeKalb County apartment complex One woman is in critical condition after jumping from the third floor. Other victims suffered from burns.

Cox Media Group