NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- When he saw the smoke, flames and a baby dangling from the window, the response, he said, was natural.
Smoke could be seen several miles away as officials with the City of Charleston, North Charleston and St. Andrews fire departments battled the massive apartment fire.
Several fire trucks and ambulances were on the scene at Noisette Apartments on Buist Avenue as dozens of emergency response officials worked the scene.
Reginald Curry lives at Noisette Apartments. He ran to one of eight units ravaged by flames -- an apartment where a mother was dangling a baby from a window. Curry caught the baby and then ran to the apartment, kicked the door in and got a second baby out of the living room.
"I just seen a woman screaming with a baby dangling out the window," Curry said. "There wasn't too much going through my mind except go over there and save the kids. It was just an automatic reaction."
Curry said he does not know his neighbor well, only well enough to greet with a wave and a handshake from time-to-time.
That didn't stop the 44-year-old father of one from what he described as a "natural reaction to help."
"I was inside my apartment, and when I walked out all I saw was black flames out the window. So, I just ran over there," he said.
Curry said while en route, he knocked on his neighbor's door and yelled and screamed for someone, anyone to call 911.
"I have never been in a situation like this before," he said. "I'm kinda shaken still."
Witnesses say after the mother tossed Curry the baby, she herself jumped out of the window of the second-floor apartment.
Antoinette Laws, who lives near the woman said she was in tears as she watched the series of events unfold.
"She said don't worry about her, 'just catch my baby,'" Laws said. "She was being a mother, and that's a mother's love."
Curry said the babies and the mother were all burned, all taken to the hospital, all still alive when he last saw them.
"My prayers go out to the family," he said. "I am really happy I was here. I'm glad I did what I did. I was supposed to go out of town this weekend, and I'm glad I didn't."
Officials say the two children are currently being cared for at MUSC, the mother taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia.
Battalion Chief E.L. Phillips confirmed eight apartment units were affected and confirmed only three people were taken to the hospital. As of 12:45 p.m., he said the fire was under control. As of that time, he also said investigators were unsure where or how the fire began.
Phillips described the fire as "pretty intense."
The Red Cross is assisting seven families whose apartments were destroyed by fire.
Check back with ABC News 4 as we continue to follow this story.
Emergency response vehicles line both sides of Buist Avenue on Friday hundreds or yards away from the fire. (WCIV)
Photo from scene
Reginald Curry (WCIV)
