12-Year-Old New York Boy Survives 5-Story Fall From Fire Escape

Shocked relatives believe that the injured boy, Justin Martinez, accidentally flipped over the side of the rail, but escaped critical injury because he landed on a sturdy store awning below.

"It's a miracle. It's a miracle he's alive," said one shocked witness, who said the accident happened so quickly that no one on the street had time to alert the boy's parents that he had clambered onto the fire escape.

Witness Luis Morel, 44, was in front of the building on Arden Street in Inwood when he looked up and saw Justin in midair.

He said the boy bounced twice on the taut canopy of the Agua Azul deli before landing on the pavement. "He landed on his butt and fell on his side and hit his head," Morel said.

He was taken to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, where, according to a family friend, he was diagnosed with only a concussion.

Justin's frantic grandmother Carmen, who rushed to the scene and then the hospital, said, "I saw him lying there. I thought he was dead. But he's OK now."