SURFSIDE, Fla.—Search-and-rescue efforts at the site of the collapsed condo tower faced complications from a fire that is generating heavy smoke and that crews are struggling to contain. Officials said they were pressing ahead with efforts to find survivors among the 159 people who remain unaccounted for.
The fire is deep in the rubble and difficult to locate, officials said at a news conference Saturday. Crews used heavy equipment to create a trench to try to isolate the fire and employed infrared technology, foam and water. They sought to minimize the spread of smoke to allow search efforts to continue.
“Our top priority now continues to be search and rescue,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor
Daniella Levine Cava.
No additional victims have been found since three bodies were pulled from the rubble early Friday, she said.
The confirmed death toll stands at four people.
A 2018 engineering report on the building, released by the town Friday night, warned the condo association that there was a “major error” in its design that allowed water to pool near its base. But another report by the same engineering firm cited an inspection from about the same time that gave the building its top grade on several measures, yielding a seemingly conflicting message about the urgency of the problems.
Asked about the report, Ms. Levine Cava said, “We are obviously very interested in all of the evidence that is coming to light.” Meanwhile, she said, the county was taking action to ensure occupants of other buildings are safe.
Northeast section collapsed, about 55 units affected
Northeast section collapsed, about 55 units affected
Northeast section collapsed, about 55 units affected
Ms. Levine Cava said she was directing the county Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources to immediately begin an audit of all buildings 40 years of age and older. The aim will be to verify all have completed a required recertification process and that they have addressed any problems that may have been identified. She said the audit would be conducted in the next 30 days.
In Surfside, officials are concerned about a sister building of Champlain Towers South, the one that collapsed. They are considering evacuating residents of that nearby tower, Champlain Towers North, which was built around the same time, said
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
President Biden declared a state of emergency and directed federal resources to help, the White House said. Mr. DeSantis said he and the president spoke by phone Friday about the need for a coordinated, long-running response to a complex disaster.
Emergency crews worked in cramped conditions in an underground parking garage, seeking paths through the wreckage of the collapsed 12-story tower. More than 130 firefighters have been working on the site.
Search-and-rescue experts are also using sonar equipment, dogs and mobile cameras, among other technology, said Ray Jadallah, chief of operations at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
More than 90% of the rescue operations were happening beneath the building, Mr. Jadallah said, with firefighters using jack hammers and saws to tunnel into areas where they might find survivors. Crews are also shoring up the building to prevent it from falling on rescue workers.
Local authorities said it is too soon to know what caused the 40-year-old building to crumble. Miami-Dade Police Department Director Alfredo Ramirez III said his detectives, along with state and federal officials, will investigate structural issues once rescue operations are complete.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Commerce Department that develops safety standards for construction, said it is sending a team to Florida and is in the early stages of determining if an investigation is warranted.
Mr. DeSantis said Friday it was important for all investigative entities to balance the need to be thorough with the need to be timely, particularly with so many grieving families and worried Floridians. “There’s a lot of other people throughout this community and throughout Florida who want to know how could a building just collapse like that?”
The collapse is already the subject of litigation, with a class-action lawsuit filed in state court Friday. Lawyer Brad Sohn, representing condo owner Manuel Drezner, said in the lawsuit that the condo association failed to maintain the building properly. Kenneth Direktor, a lawyer for the condo association, said engineers for the building, the town and other levels of government don’t know what caused the building to collapse. “How does this lawyer know?” he said.
Near the disaster site Saturday morning, joggers paused at a makeshift memorial at the Surfside Tennis Center, where community members set flowers, candles and photos of loved ones yet to be found in the rubble. Some sobbed, shook their heads, or covered their faces with their hands as the noxious smell of smoldering building materials hung in the air.
At the Grand Beach Hotel Surfside, where some building survivors are staying and which houses a reunification center for people affected by the tragedy, solemn-faced families walked to synagogue, and local and federal agents continued to coordinate aid efforts.
Joe Zevuloni, a 48-year-old Broward County business owner who set up a meals operation for affected families at a local community center, pushed a cooler of water bottles up Collins Avenue toward the Grand Beach Hotel. He said search-and-rescue news inside the reunification center was sparse, and what news there was, joyless.
“I don’t want them to lose hope,” he said.
—Jon Kamp, Deborah Acosta, Daniela Hernandez and Elizabeth Bernstein contributed to this article.
Write to Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@wsj.com and Will Parker at will.parker@wsj.com
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