A 9-year-old New Jersey girl was home alone Tuesday when a fire broke out in an adjacent condo unit and spread to her home, leaving her with no option but to leap from a third-floor balcony to police safety, ABC7 New York reports.
According to ABC7, the incident occurred in Mahwah, Bergen County, at around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
The girl, Sofya Doroshenko, told ABC7 that flames were blocking all of the other exits, forcing her onto the balcony, where Mahwah police officers, having just reaching the scene, stood below waiting to catch her.
Mahwah police Lt. Jeff Dino told ABC7 that Sofya is “the most confident brave little kid that I've ever met. She put complete faith in us and when she jumped back we caught her.”
While the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, cooking may have been to blame, ABC7 said. No injuries were reported.
Read the full ABC7 report here.