A 12-year-old girl who fell into a chimney on her Manhattan rooftop and plummeted down the flue for 14 storeys survived almost unscathed when she landed in a pile of soot.
Grace Berger was recovering at a New York hospital on Saturday with an injured hip. A 60cm-deep pile of ash and dust in the basement furnace cushioned her fall and may have saved her life, fire officials said.
Rescuers did not expect to find the girl alive, but spotted her soot-caked hand reaching out for help. After emerging, she was completely covered in black, with only her eyes and mouth visible.
Fire chief Austin Horan said Grace emerged ”relatively unscathed” from the accident on Thursday night at the Westbeth Artists Housing complex where the girl lives with her jazz guitarist father, Steve Berger.
”It’s a miracle — it’s an absolute miracle,” he said later.
The rooftop adventure began late on Friday when Grace was showing her cousin the spectacular view of the city from the top of the family’s apartment building overlooking the Hudson River on the city’s West Side.
She climbed up a 7,6m ladder alongside the big brick chimney and fell down the narrow flue.
Grace was featured in a 2006 Associated Press article about the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in Manhattan. While there for a week, she started a band called the Fluffy Skulls with friends, took instrument lessons and wrote songs.
She also has performed with the New York City Opera children’s chorus, but apparently found rock’n’roll drumming more exciting. — Sapa-AP