On Saturday, a 12-year-old girl survived a 14-story drop down a chimney from a Manhattan rooftop, thanks to a two-foot pile of soot at the bottom of the chute.
For those who scoff at messiness, here’s a story that could change your mind: On Saturday, a 12-year-old girl survived a 14-story drop down a chimney from a New York City rooftop, thanks to a two-foot pile of soot at the bottom of the chute.
Grace Bergere was simply trying to show a visiting cousin the beautiful view from the top of her apartment complex - but she didn’t realize a gaping chimney entrance was right at the end of a 25-foot ladder to the roof. Caught off balance, Bergere went tumbling, 180 feet down to the building’s basement.
Bergere’s father called 911 immediately, fearing the worst for his daughter. But when firefighters opened a door at the bottom of the chimney, the girl immediately reached out with a soot-covered hand.
“I just jumped back,” one of the firefighters, Lt. Simon Ressner, told reporters on Friday. “I wasn’t expecting anybody alive at the bottom of the shaft, so I was shocked.”
“It’s a miracle; it’s an absolute miracle,” Bergere’s father, Steve Bergere, told ABC News.
Though Bergere thought she might have broken her neck and leg from the fall, it seems that she’s escaped from her close call nearly unscathed - her only confirmed injury is to her hip, and she is in fair condition at a local hospital.
Bergere is a budding rock drummer, who started a band called the Fluffy Skulls at a summer music camp. Thanks to her fortuitous landing in the pile of soot, she should be on track to rock out again in no time.