Girl Survives 14-Storey Chimney Fall

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.

Lt. Simon Ressner said he "jumped back" when Grace's hand appeared through the door at the bottom of the chimney shaft. He said, "She was completely black. The only part we could see was her eyes and her mouth...I think she probably went down head first and landed on her back." He added that it didn't seem like anything broke her fall on the way down, because she wasn't scraped up (the girl reportedly suffered a dislocated hip and "other possible fractures"). Grace, who plays the drums in a rock band, is recovering at Bellevue.