Matthew Jackson was on break from the night shift at the Arclin Chemical Plant when he saw the fire around 2 a.m.
"Flames were already past the power pole right here, and we're just pounding on the windows, just kept pounding, 'Get up, get up'," he recalled.
Jackson heard screams coming from the second story.
He looked up and saw a family of 5 at their window, holding a little girl.
"'Drop her, just drop her. I will catch her,'" Jackson recalled yelling to the parents. "And they dropped her, and I caught her."
Then he and his friends rescued the others - even their dog - from the fire. He got all 15 residents evacuated in minutes before the fire crews even got to the scene at 582 28th St.
Batallion Chief Lance Lighty said that it's a good thing, too, given what the complex looked like when firefighters arrived.