WATCH: Cat survives leap from burning building in ChicagoEmmanuel Camarilloon May 14, 2021 at 9:00 pm

Smoke can be seen billowing from several windows in the building in video of the fire posted to Twitter by fire officials. 

A cat put one of its nine lives to the test Thursday after it jumped out of a fifth-floor window to escape a fire in Englewood.

The blaze broke out at an apartment building about 3 p.m. in the 6500 block of South Lowe Avenue, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

Smoke can be seen billowing from several windows on the fifth floor of the building in video of the fire posted to Twitter by fire officials.

While crews were working to extinguish the fire, onlookers on the sidewalk began pointing at one of the open widows as the cat approached a ledge, Langford said.

“It was looking out for quite a while,” Langford said. “After a couple of minutes the cat got closer to the edge and it looked like she was getting ready to go and she just did.”

The cat can be seen stretching out its paws as it leaps from the window and narrowly misses hitting a wall on its way down, according to the video. The cat appears to bounce a single time off of a patch of grass before strolling away.

“It went under my car and hid until she felt better after a couple of minutes and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in,” Langford said.

The cat was not injured, Langford said, adding that he was still trying to track down its owner.

The blaze was put out by 3:25 p.m. and was contained to a single unit, officials said. No one was injured.

Elizabeth Thomas, who lives above the unit where the fire started, was in her apartment when she smelled smoke and started to get worried.

“I’m sitting there thinking this ain’t nobody BBQing, this smells a little bit more like a grease fire or something that’s getting out of hand,” said Thomas, 49.

She exited her apartment and walked outside of the building, where she says she saw smoke coming out of the unit below hers. Other residents joined her outside.

Thomas said she didn’t see the cat make the leap, but heard everyone around her react to its daring escape.

“Everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, oh my god,’ thinking that it might be hurt but eventually we saw it get up and go limping away,” she said.

Thomas said the cat was seen walking near the building after firefighters left, possibly trying to get back inside. However, later Thursday evening she and other residents were unsure where the cat had gone; the owner of the unit that caught fire could not be reached.

“I’m just glad no one got hurt. Thank god that cats do have nine lives. I hope I got nine,” Thomas said.

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