A 12-year-old girl who just wanted to show her cousin the view from the top of the Westbeth artists’ complex at West and Bethune Sts. fell 15 stories down one of the chimneys and survived last Thursday evening. Dubbed “The Miracle Kid of Greenwich Village” by one daily tabloid, Grace Bergere had her fall broken by a 3-foot pile of soot at the bottom of the nonworking chimney, which Westbeth’s super had luckily decided not to sweep out. She was “relatively unscathed,” according to firefighters. Bergere climbed a two-story metal ladder to get to the chimney top, then reportedly stood on its edge to get a better view, but fell in, tumbling to the bottom of the 13-story building.
Pulled out of the chimney by firefighters, she was badly shaken but conscious. Westbeth residents said the roof is never locked and is not a restricted area. Bergere is an up-and-coming rock drummer with the Fluffy Skulls, and her father, Steve Bergere, is a jazz guitarist. Grace was said on Tuesday to be conscious but uncomfortable with a broken hip in Bellevue Hospital. In the foreground of the photo above is a severed section of the High Line that runs under Westbeth.
