A Dad Threw His Toddler Out Of A Burning Building In A Desperate Rescue Caught On Video

A father threw his young child out the second-floor window of a burning apartment building on Monday morning in a dramatic moment captured on video by police in South Brunswick, New Jersey.

The risky stunt was a last-ditch attempt to spare the toddler from a fire at an apartment complex where police and firefighters were racing to save everyone inside.

Police body camera footage shows the moment when first responders told the dad to drop the 3-year-old, and we can only imagine what went through the father's head at the time.

"Pass the baby!" police and firefighters can be heard shouting at the dad from below. "We got ya!"

So he dropped the baby. And they caught him.

The footage then shows the father slowly lowering himself out of the window head first before he comes crashing to the ground.

He lands on top of the rescuers, and they more or less cushion his fall.

The fire was reported around 8 a.m. on Monday.

"We were faced with extremely heavy fire conditions immediately on arrival, along with reports of people still inside. Fortunately, all of the occupants were able to escape the fire," said Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith in a press release.

"If this fire was earlier in the morning when people may have still been asleep, the outcome could have easily been tragic."

Firefighters raced to get everyone out of the 25-apartment complex. They thought they had been successful until they saw the father sticking his head out his window.

"The fact that he was sleeping, and we pounded on those doors," Fire Chief Chris Perez said to ABC7. "I mean, we were making a lot of noise."

The Red Cross has been assisting the around-50 people who were displaced by the apartment fire.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.