Morning Thing: Perilous Fire Escapes!

I do not really want to know the story behind this picture of two small children tumbling from a collapsed fire escape. I fear it is not a forgery, though certain aspects of the composition (not to mention the gruesome subject matter) make me suspect it is. If real, I suspect the tumbling little girl ended up as a millimeter-thick inch of gelatin on the sidewalk below. However, things obviously turned out better for young Gary Coleman: his low body mass and flexible bones obviously allowed him to survive the fall unscathed, like a mouse dropped from a skyscraper.

Apparently taken by Stanley J. Forman in Boston in 1976. Via Riotclitshave.

Update: Much to my dismay, this is a real photograph. Reader John Brady comments:

I'm afraid I remember this photo vividly: it appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe while I lived there, and it's not a fake. A mother and daughter fled to a fire escape when their building caught fire. The fire escape collapsed (you can see the pieces in the photo) and mother and daughter fell. I can't remember whether none, one, or both of them died. But it's a hard photo to forget.

Gee, that's a hell of a downer way to start off the morning. What a horrible tragedy; what an incredible, unforgettable photograph.