BOSTON --
The father of a Back Bay condo resident who nearly lost her life in a nine-alarm fire Thursday says he is very lucky that his daughter is alive after she was rescued from the burning building by Boston firefighters during the height of the blaze.
Kelly Graling, 25, was found semi-conscious and given CPR on the roof of the Cambridge House condominium complex before being taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.
"I remember trying to get out on the roof deck and not being able to and thinking, 'That's it.' But I could also hear firefighters on their radios downstairs, so I figured they were coming," she said before her release from MGH on Thursday.
"Her main condition was smoke inhalation. She attempted to go down -- she was on the 10th floor when the fire occurred. She tried to go down the stairway to get out of the building and it was just too dark and too much smoke for her. So she switched directions and headed to the roof but she couldn't open the roof door. She could only open it about a half-inch, she said, and she tried to breathe through that opening, but by then she had passed out. The fire department actually found her passed out at that fire door on the rooftop," Don Graling said.
Graling's father sped to Boston from Washington, D.C., to be at his daughter's side. He said he credits the Boston Fire Department with saving her life. He said she was talking and coherent Thursday morning.
In a raspy voice, Kelly Graling said on Thursday that she doesn’t remember anything after collapsing at the fire door to when she awoke in the hospital.
"I have no memory. I have nothing. I have no memory of that. But I really appreciate it, and I am so lucky," she said.
"When she was in that stairwell, she thought she was going to die ... She thought she heard fire department radios coming up the stairwell, but she made that one push to get that door open but she just couldn't open that door on the rooftop," Don Graling said.
Kelly Graling admitted one of her mistakes was that she heard the alarm go off but did not realize how serious the fire was until about 15 minutes later when she actually saw smoke.
"We had a false alarm before. The alarm had gone off in the middle of the night, and I figured it was another one of those things that I didn't need to pay attention to until I actually saw the smoke and that was really too late. Just drop everything and get out of there. I didn't want to be inconvenienced and that was crazy. I should have left right away," she said.
"She had had false alarms at 3 in the morning before that would run for 20 minutes and nothing happens so she just didn't react to this one. She was doing some studying for her PhD program so she just didn't realize the severity of the situation, and when she did it was almost too late for her," Don Graling said.
He said he arrived about 11 p.m. and was overjoyed to see his daughter, who was in a parabolic chamber.
"I'm a very lucky dad today ... very lucky that she's alive," he said.
A second resident, Marilyn Hung, was also rescued by Boston firefighters and taken to Brigham & Women's Hospital. She was released early Thursday.
Fire officials are still working to determine the cause of the blaze, which began on the building's seventh floor. The complex, originally built in 1895, did not have a sprinkler system because it was built before such systems were mandated by the city fire code.
Fire officials estimated damages at $3.5 million.
Copyright 2010 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
