Condo collapse in Fla. kills at least one; search and rescue combing through rubble

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava addressed the media in front of a backdrop of thunder and lightning.

“It’s the unimaginable,” she said. “A massive search and rescue mission is underway.”

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Ray Jadallah says 55 units in the Northeast corridor of the building collapsed, and 35 survivors were pulled out. Ten were treated at the scene, two were transported to the hospital.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett confirmed at least one person has died. Authorities anticipate more fatalities but wouldn’t speculate at the number.

Just after 8 a.m., Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, told the Miami Herald emergency workers believe they have cleared all survivors from inside the tower, which has more than 130 apartments. He said more than 70 of the units 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.

A DESPERATE RESCUE SCENE

Rescuers were desperately trying to get a trapped child out of the garage at the Champlain Towers shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday. The child 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.

Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul said authorities are compiling a list of residents who remain unaccounted for. Paul estimated that there are more than a dozen missing residents.

“We’re working on a list,” she said.

Survivors of the collapse, including former Surfside Vice Mayor Barry Cohen, describe the scene as chaotic. He moved into a condominium on the third floor of the building with his wife, Ofi, in June 2018.

Cohen said he woke up early Thursday morning to “a bang that just kept on going.”

He and his wife gathered some belongings and opened the door of their condo to find a large pile of rubble and dust. The couple started down the stairs, but warped metal blocked the doorways. The couple tried to escape through the garage, but water poured in and rose above their shins.

They made their way back to their condo, where they shouted for help from the balcony.

“I was worried it was all going to go down,” Cohen said.

The couple and their two neighbors waited for 20 minutes before fire rescue arrived in their window with a cherry picker bucket.

At a news conference at Hillsborough Community College, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the quick work of first responders saved lives, but warned, “we are bracing from some bad news given the destruction.”

DeSantis said he will be traveling to the area this morning and the state will provide assistance “in any way that we can.”

“But I do think the quick response was very important and I do think it saved lives. So I want to thank the folks for their bravery in doing that.”

SURROUNDING BUILDINGS EVACUATED

Because workers haven’t determined the stability 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 north, 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 woken up 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 the hospital’s driveway and hugs with other family members gathered outside. “‘This building is going to collapse.’”

HOW DID THE BUILDING 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.”

Peter Dyga, president and CEO of a Florida chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a national construction trade association, called the partial collapse at the Champlain Towers “an oddity of biblical proportions.”

“People have to remember, there are thousands of buildings of this height or taller in South Florida, millions worldwide ... This does not happen. Clearly, something was wrong,” Dyga said.

“We need to find what happened and make sure if there was any kind of negligence we hold people accountable,” Dyga said.

Dyga urged Floridians not to jump to conclusions as investigators assess architectural plans, engineering calculations, construction materials, and maintenance records to try to determine what went wrong.

“This is going to be probably multiple years in trying to figure out what happened here. There are so many variables,” he said. “It’s probably more than likely going to be a combination of bad things.”

To Floridians living in other high-rise condos, Dyga stressed calm. “People do not have to worry about their building falling down,” he said.

THE AREA AND RESOURCES

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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(Miami Herald staff writers Mary Ellen Klas and David J. Neal contributed to this story.)