(NewsNation) — A family of six was rescued from the second story of a burning apartment building in southern Indiana by jumping from a window into the arms of police officers waiting below.
The family was able to survive based on the quick-thinking of a 10-year-old girl in the apartment who wrapped her hand in clothing and began punching out windows.
Madison Police Department officers Phillip Wimpee and Nichole Midgett were some of the first to respond to the scene of the fire, Wimpee said it was very obvious upon arrival people were trapped in the building.
‘When we first arrived on the scene we could see heavy smoke coming out of the window that you saw in the body cam footage,” Wimpee said. “We could hear them screaming probably about a half a block away as we were arriving on scene.”
Midgett said having the family jump from the windows was the best option to save them.
“We instantly saw the flames in the front of the apartment and heard the kids upstairs saying ‘we have a baby, we have a baby’ so I think that’s when we jumped in and said ‘this is our only option,’ and we started to instruct them out the window,” Midgett said.
The full interview with Wimpee and Midgett can be viewed in the video above.