Residents leap from third-floor windows onto mattresses to escape huge Dallas flat fire

Residents were forced to jump to safety from third-floor windows after a massive fire broke out at a block of flats in northeast Dallas.

The fire broke out at the Meadows of Ferguson flats at around 7am on Wednesday.

Several people gathered below the burning apartments and laid out mattresses so that people jumping from the windows would land safely.

One woman dropped her one-year-old daughter out of the window before jumping out herself. The baby was caught safely by a bystander on the ground.

Byron Campbell, who rescued the one-year-old, said: "I seen a lady, she yelled out the window she was about to drop the baby.

"So, my first reaction, was go by the window and catch the baby. When she dropped the baby I caught the baby and curled him up in my hands."

Officers from the Dallas Department were the first to arrive on the scene and they immediately began running from door to door alerting residents to the fire and making sure all flats were evacuated.

The fire service praised citizens as "real heroes" who helped to save residents.

They said: "Dallas Fire Rescue has extinguished the fire on Ferguson Road, but the real heroes did their work beforehand, as civilians and Dallas Police worked together to get residents to safety."