As fire rages, mom tosses baby from 2nd story into NJ officer’s arms

A North Brunswick police officer caught a baby thrown from a second-floor balcony Tuesday as her apartment burned behind her.

Officer Nate Nicholson found the mom, identified by ABC 7 as Natalia Wahad, calling for help from her apartment at the apartment on Willowbrook Drive as the 3-alarm fire burned according to police.

Nicholson got Wahad to drop her baby from their balcony and then caught her as she jumped from the second floor, police said.. Nicholson then continued to make sure other residents were safe evacuated, police said.

"A policeman and some other man came over, and I just dropped baby in his hands. And I jump also in their hands, and that's how we got saved," Wahad told ABC, adding the she lost her pet cat and dog in the fire.

Both the mother and child were transported to a hospital as a precaution, police said. After the officer caught both, officers and neighbors continued to make sure the building was evacuated, police said.

The North Brunswick Fire Department arrived and battled the blaze for several hours, keeping the fire damage to building 19, police said. Two firefighters that were struck by falling roof debris were treated for minor injuries on scene by the North Brunswick EMS.

The three-alarm fire broke out in the complex's building 19 around 8:15 a.m. heavily damaging eight units and making the entire building uninhabitable, according to police.  The American Red Cross of North Jersey tweeted it assisted 21 people displaced by the fire.