Twelve-story Miami Beach apartment building collapses leaving at least one dead

964

View
comments

A young boy has miraculously been pulled alive from the rubble of a 12-story Miami Beach apartment building after it collapsed in the middle of the night, killing at least one person – as authorities fear there could be dozens more casualties.    

A huge emergency search and rescue operation is underway after the beachfront condo tower, Champlain Towers South, collapsed at about 1.30am this morning in the Miami neighborhood of Surfside. 

One woman has already been confirmed dead and at least eight people were injured. 

Rescue teams, who are still trawling the wreckage for any survivors, managed to pull the boy from rubble in the early stages of the search operation.  

Hundreds of firefighters were seen walking through the wreckage, picking up other survivors and carrying them  away. 

Authorities fear many more people may be dead or remain trapped after witnesses reported hearing screaming from the wreckage as a search-and-rescue operation began. 

‘The building has literally pancaked,’ Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. 

‘That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean to me that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive.’

It is not clear how many people are missing but authorities said the building was ‘substantially full’ when it collapsed.   

The building, which contains 130 apartments – 70 of which are believed to have been destroyed – is located one block away from where Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump currently live.    

Authorities have not yet determined what caused the building to collapse but confirmed that renovations had been underway on the roof.

Mayor Burkett said it was unlikely that the roof work had anything to do with the collapse, instead describing it as a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the building. 

‘It’s hard to imagine how this could have happened,’ Burkett said. ‘Buildings just don’t fall down. 

‘There’s no reason for this building to go down like that unless someone literally pulls the supports out from underneath.’ 

Burkett suggested that potential causes could be the result of the foundations being washed out or a sinkhole. 

The Miami-Dade Police have assumed control of the investigation as to why the building collapsed. 

The collapse left a number of units in the still-standing part of the building exposed. 

Bunk beds, tables and chairs could be seen still left inside the damaged apartments. Air conditioner units were hanging from some parts of the building where wires now dangled. 

Photos and video from the scene show the collapse affected half the tower. Piles of rubble and debris surrounded the area just outside the building. 

The debris from the collapse coated cars up to two blocks away with a light layer of dust.    

Santo Mejil, 50, told the Miami Herald his wife called him from the building, where she was working as an aide for an elderly woman.

‘She said she heard a big explosion. It felt like an earthquake,’ Mejil told the newspaper. He said she later called him and said rescuers were bringing her down. 

One witness, who was staying in the south Florida island city with his family, was in a neighboring building at the time and said the collapse sounded and felt like a tornado or earthquake.

‘It was the craziest thing I ever heard in my life,’ he told Fox News.

Witnesses claimed to have heard people screaming beneath the rubble during frantic efforts to free them from the wreckage of the building. 

One witness told NBC: ‘They are able to rescue some people but I heard some screams.’

When the building initially collapsed, more than 80 rescue units were on the scene, including designated teams skilled in retrieving bodies from wreckages.  

Southbound traffic is being diverted west on 96th Street and northbound traffic is being diverted at 85th Street and Collins Avenue as authorities remain on the scene, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmed. 

Miami Beach Police Department said: ‘MBPD and @MiamiBeachFire are assisting the Town of Surfside at a partial building collapse located at 8777 Collins Avenue in Surfside, Florida.

‘Multiple police and fire agencies from across Miami-Dade are assisting. Please follow @MiamiDadeFire for updated information.’  

The sea-view condo development was built in 1981 in the southeast corner of Surfside, on the beach. It had a few two-bedroom units currently on the market, with asking prices of $600,000 to $700,000.

The area is a mix of new and old apartments, houses, condominiums and hotels, with restaurants and stores serving an international combination of residents and tourists. 

The community provides a stark contrast from bustle and glitz of South Beach with a slower paced neighborhood feel.