FL Condo Collapse: Building Demolished, 3 More Bodies Found

SURFSIDE, FL — The remaining portion of the Champlain Towers South condo building that partially collapsed in Surfside 12 days ago was demolished Sunday night, allowing “full search-and-rescue mode” to resume by 1 a.m. Monday, Mayor Daniela Levine Cava said at a news conference.

This demolition allowed first responders to access a large pile of debris that was closest to the remaining building, the mayor said. They previously couldn’t search this pile because it was holding up the building and it wasn’t safe for workers to search through the devastation.

The demolition “was executed exactly as planned” around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Levine Cava said. The building fell away from the pile toward Collins Avenue.

“To collapse an entire apartment building is a devastating decision and the demolition was in no way a decision that I made lightly,” the mayor said. “Bringing the building down in a controlled manner was critical to expanding our scope of search. Truly, we could not continue without bringing this building down.”

With the building brought down, officials are hopeful that first responders might find voids in the rubble where someone might be found alive, she added.

The building was brought down as Tropical Storm Elsa makes its way to Florida. Though the state’s western coast and parts of the panhandle will see the biggest impact from the storm, South Florida could still see tropical storm force winds, which could have caused the condo tower to fall, the mayor said.

Since work resumed at the site, three additional bodies have been recovered from the rubble. So far, 28 people have been confirmed dead in the building’s collapse, 191 have been accounted for and 118 people are still missing, the mayor said.

Two additional victims have also been identified, Miami-Dade police shared on social media. Ingrid Ainsworth, 66, and Tzvi Ainsworth, 68, are the latest residents to have been identified in the collapse.

Levine Cava also addressed concerns that pets might have been in the condo tower at the time of its demolition.

“We took every action that we possibly could to search for any pets, any animals in the building prior to the demolition,” she said.

Since the building’s collapse June 24, first responders have conducted multiple full sweeps of the building in person, searching in closets, under beds and in other places where pets might be hiding.

They also placed live animal traps on balconies, used ladders to look into units, used drones with thermal imaging and left doorways opens for pets to escape on their own, she said.

“We went truly to great lengths to take every step that we could, at great risk to our first responders, to ensure that all of the pets that were beloved family members, that none of them were left in the building prior to the demolition,” the mayor said.