Amazing moment hero cat jumps to safety from burning building in Chicago

Now that’s what you might call a purrr-fect landing (sorry).

One lucky cat managed to escape unharmed after leaping from the fifth floor window of a burning apartment in Chicago on Thursday.

The leap of faith was captured on video by a Chicago Fire Department worker as they tackled the inferno.

The video shows black smoke engulfing the building as the feline approaches a broken window.

After a short time assessing the situation, the moggy commits to its escape plan, taking a giant leap – causing onlookers to gasp in horror.

Miraculously, the cat clears a wall and manages to land on all fours on the grass before bouncing up running away, unharmed.

Fire department spokesman Larry Langford confirmed that the cat was not injured.

“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,” he said.

Langford said he was attempting to find the cat’s owner.

Of course, people on social media shared their amazement at the cat’s brave stunt and the original post received more than 6,000 likes.

So how can a cat land and survive such a big fall?

According to science, cats’ bodies are built to survive high falls.

They have a relatively large surface area in proportion to their weight, therefore reducing the force at which they hit the ground.

Terminal velocity is the speed at which the downward tug of gravity is matched by the upward push of wind resistance.

Cats reach terminal velocity at a slow speed compared to large animals like humans and horses.

Proof that cats really do have nine lives...