This is the moment an American firefighter caught a baby thrown from the second floor of a burning apartment building.

Georgia fireman Robert Sutton was among the first on the scene in the Glenwood area of Atlanta on Wednesday.

Playing down his role in saving the baby's life, Mr Sutton said he did not stop to think when he heard shouting from above and saw the child dangling from the window of a smoke filled room.

“He was a little guy, so when I heard his father yelling 'Help', and saw him hanging out the window with the baby in his arms, I just went into action," the firefighter told Fox 5 Atlanta. "I just did what any of the other firefighters out here would have done."

He continued: “I just said 'Drop him.' He did and I am blessed to have been in a position to catch the baby. It was my first time in a situation like that."

The video shows Mr Sutton — who has been a firefighter with the DeKalb County force for 10 years, and grew up in the area, near to the apartment complex — enveloped in thick smoke, standing beneath the window waiting for the baby to fall. Behind him, a second firefighter rushes over to act as backup.

Mr Sutton smoothly catches the baby and rushes to get the child out of the smoke, to safety.

Plumber Larry Carter was working nearby and recorded the rescue on his phone.

"It was a remarkable sight to see something like that. They were on it," he told the television station, explaining that he was working in the building next door when the fire erupted, and stopped to video smoke billowing from the windows.

"All of a sudden you heard a man screaming. When I heard there was a baby, my heart started fluttering. But the firefighters [got] up to the window fast and the one guy just caught it like a football pass. It was something to see," he said.

Mr Sutton's boss, Captain Tom Burrell said he was extremely proud of the firefighter.