VIDEO: Brave neighbors save baby, multiple residents from Dallas apartment fire

DALLAS (KABC) -- Alarming video shows residents of a burning Dallas apartment complex leaping from third-floor windows onto mattresses, and a woman dropping her baby to a bystander to escape the flames.

As firefighters raced in to get to the fire, some neighbors were already at work saving lives.

One desperate mom and dad dropped their baby out of a bedroom window.

"It was terrifying because I didn't know if I was going to come down with her, or if that would be the last time that I was holding my child," said Chantera, the 1-year-old girl's mother.

A fast-acting neighbor caught the baby, but the danger was far from over.

More neighbors pulled a mattress from a nearby unit and urged those still trapped to jump. One by one they did, including Chantera. Patrick, the child's father, was next.

Patrick got more than 20 stitches from punching out the window so his family could escape.

"I have my child because of him, she gets to live another day because of him," Chantera said.

Neighbors called the men who rushed in to help the magnificent seven. The man who caught the baby said he caught the child "with a curl, just like if you caught a football."

Investigators are trying to determine what started the fire that destroyed about two dozen units.