FELINE TAKES DEATH LEAP FROM FIFTH FLOOR OF BURNING BUILDING AND CASUALLY WALKS OFF

A cat made a death leap to safety after an apartment building caught on fire in Chicago. The feline jumped from the fifth floor of a burning building before casually walking away.

The video of the burning building was posted to social media by the Chicago Fire Department, which showed smoke coming out the window of one of the apartments. 

Chicago Fire Department staff recorded a video of the exterior of the burning building while crew members were trying to extinguish the flames.  

Debris could be seen falling from the broken windows when, suddenly, the black cat made its excision through the smoke as it jumped out the window to escape the flames.

Witnesses on site stared with amazement when one stunned eyewitness suddenly shouted, "Look at the cat!" Fortunately, the feline missed the wall below and laded miraculously on all four paws on a patch of grass and ran off casually. 

"It went under my car and hid until she felt better. After a couple of minutes, it and came out and tried to scale the wall to get back in," explained Fire department spokesman Larry Langford.

Cat's have the incredible ability to land on their feet by what is often referred to as the cat-righting reflex. Due to its flexible backbone and lack of collarbone, a cat can twist the two halves of its body in opposite directions. This causes "their opposing angular momenta to largely cancel". Its body will be oriented in a different orientation when it unbends. 

Fortunately, the cat was not injured, according to Langford. He added that the feline was indeed trying to track down its owner after the leap of faith.

There were no injuries reported after the fire, which was confined to one apartment. The cause of the fire has not yet been made clear by officials.