The Florida authorities blew up the remains of the collapsed skyscraper earlier than expected. The ruin had endangered the rescue operation. But there is immediately sad news again.
Miami – After the targeted demolition of the remains of the partially collapsed residential complex near Miami Beach, emergency services discovered more bodies.
“Since the first responders were able to resume their work last night (…), we have unfortunately recovered three more victims,” said District Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Monday morning (local time). The official number of dead is now 27. The remains of the building were blown up late on Sunday evening – the ruins were unstable and had endangered the rescue operation.
The building complex with around 130 residential units in Surfside, Florida, collapsed on June 24 for reasons that were still unclear. Since then, detection dogs, special cameras and heavy equipment have been used to search for victims practically around the clock. Furthermore, 118 people are still missing, although it is unclear how many of them were actually in the building near the beach at the time of the accident.
There is still hope
The longer the rescue operation takes, the more difficult it will of course to find survivors, said Mayor Levine Cava. “But we now have the option to search an area where there could be voids. And that’s where we focus our efforts. ”Since the first hours after the collapse, no survivors have been recovered from the rubble.
The demolition of the Champlain South Tower went as planned, it said. TV images from Surfside showed how the ruined skyscraper collapsed after several loud explosions and released a huge cloud of dust. The demolition was not supposed to take place for a few weeks, but had been brought forward. In addition to the hindrance to the rescue operation, there were also safety concerns about the tail of the storm “Elsa”, which could trigger violent gusts of wind and heavy rain from Monday evening local time in southern Florida.
Not an easy decision
“To collapse an entire building is a devastating decision, and demolishing it was by no means a decision I made lightly,” Levine Cava continued. Before the demolition, residents were asked to stay in their homes and keep doors and windows closed to protect them from dust and small particles.
The search and rescue operation in the rubble was interrupted on Saturday due to preparations for the demolition. The experts can search for them in areas of the heap of rubble that were previously inaccessible for security reasons.
Since the accident, the residents of the part of the building that was still standing have not been allowed to go back into their apartments for safety reasons – not even to take out personal items before the blast. It had previously been checked whether there were pets in the part of the building, said the mayor. In the meantime, a fire had significantly hampered the search. Heavy rain also repeatedly bothered the search parties and prolonged the agonizing waiting time for relatives.
According to the New York Times, the company that was hired for the demolition was also involved in the work on the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It specializes in using controlled explosions to bring down large structures in urban areas. For the ruined skyscraper in Surfside, small explosives were used so that the building collapsed.
In the hours before the demolition, the people in the city of Miami Beach, which is adjacent to the south, celebrated the United States’ national holiday on July 4th with fireworks, reported the “Miami Herald”. People then lit candles on the beach during the detonation. dpa
