Condo collapse in Surfside kills at least one; search and rescue combing through rubble
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article252324218.html (archive)A 12-story oceanfront condo tower partially collapsed early Thursday morning in the town of Surfside, spurring a massive search-and-rescue effort with dozens of rescue crews from across Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
The ocean-facing portion of Champlain Towers South Condo, completed in 1981 with more than 100 units at 8777 Collins Ave., collapsed around 2 a.m., leaving a heap of rubble.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett confirmed that 10 people were treated for injuries on-site, two transported to the hospital, and at least one person has died. Authorities anticipate more fatalities.
A little after 8 a.m., Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, said emergency workers believe they have cleared all survivors from inside the tower, which has more than 130 apartments. He said more than 70 of them have been destroyed or damaged.
“Everyone who is alive is out of the building,” he told the Miami Herald.
Several people have gathered at the town’s community center, where the Red Cross is assisting those who are waiting to hear about missing loved ones. Burkett said the building manager does not keep a log of residents, but logs visitors. First responders are using the list to try and account for the missing.
“They brought dogs who can sniff for survivors in the rubble,” said Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer. “They aren’t turning up very much. No one is celebrating anyone being pulled out.”
Salzhauer said the building was beginning its 40-year recertification, and the building’s roof was being redone, but it is unknown if any construction activity contributed to the disaster.
Rescuers were desperately trying to get a trapped child out of the garage at the Champlain Towers shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, who was discovered by a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue dog.
The searchers believe the child was with his or her parents, who are deceased, Rollason said.
“It’s bad,” he said.
In another case, Rollason said, rescuers saved a mother and her child, but the mother’s leg had to be amputated to get her out.
“We got some people out. They had to cut away railings,” he said.
Because workers haven’t determined the stability yet of the collapsed structure, they haven’t yet started to remove the pile of rubble that remains attached to the building.
Rollason said the building to the south, which is newer, is far enough away that it appears to be fine for now. The building on the south, he said, is older and has been evacuated. The Solara Surfside hotel, which is next to the tower, has also been evacuated.
Santo Mejil, 50, was roused out of bed when his wife called from a unit on the ninth floor of the south condo, one of three buildings that make up the Champlain Towers complex. She is an overnight caretaker for an elderly disabled woman.
“She said she heard a big explosion. It felt like an earthquake,” Mejil told the Miami Herald.
As he recounted rushing over to the beach from their home near Miami International Airport, his phone rang. It was his wife.
“They’re bringing you down?” he said. Tears welled in his eyes. “Thank God.”
Adriana Chi waited outside Jackson’s Ryder Trauma Center shortly before 7 on Thursday morning, worried about two relatives inside and another she can’t locate.
She said her brother, sister-and-law and teenage niece live in a ninth-floor unit there. She was able to speak to her niece ahead of her emergency surgery at Ryder. She said the 16-year-old recalled being awoken by her mother to a shaking building, then had the sensation of the floor giving way.
“She felt the building shake,” said Chi, a nurse practitioner. “Then everything collapsed.”
Chi said her sister-in-law, a psychologist, was brought to Ryder as well but she doesn’t know the whereabouts of her brother, a lawyer.
Chi said her father has owned the unit for about 30 years. She said leaks were a chronic problem, leading to a nagging worry for her.
“The last time I was there, I looked at him and I said: ‘I am serious,’” she recalled between tearful cellphone calls by hospital’s driveway and hugs with other family members gathered outside. “‘This building is going to collapse.’”
Burkett, the mayor, noted that the building is not as old as many in the surrounding area, and that “there is no reason for a building to come down like that.” There are one-foot gaps between stories where there used to be 10, he said.
“This doesn’t happen,” he said. “I’ve been here my whole life, and I haven’t seen anything like this happen.”
When asked if he believed the collapse was an accident, Burkett wouldn’t say.
“What I can say is that a building has fallen down .... I expect that this building is not salvageable at this point.”
He said there had been construction work on the building’s roof over the last 30 days, and that “we’re certainly going to look at that.”
A South Florida-based home insurance inspector who asked not to be named said she had visited Champlain Towers in February 2020 to verify impact windows and doors for a client.
She said the building is reinforced concrete and should not have collapsed the way it did.
“As someone who has been in this business for years, it defies logic,” she said. “It defies everything that we know.”
The area around 88th Street and Collins and Harding avenues have been shut down for several blocks. Dozens of fire engines and rescue vehicles are lining the streets. According to the county’s fire rescue call list, 113 Fire-Rescue units are on scene.
The building is a block north of Miami Beach city limits. The town of Surfside runs along Collins Avenue, south of Bal Harbour. Condos and motels line Collins Avenue.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has set up a family reunification center. Anyone looking to connect with loved ones from Champlain Towers can call 305-614-1819.
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This happened around 2am. There is way more than one dead.
