10th victim dead in Miami building ‘domino effect’ collapse from bottom up
The Miami-area condo collapse death toll rose to at least 10 on Monday as experts said the building began crumbling at the bottom and brought the top down in a ‘domino effect’.
Speaking during a press conference, Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah said that a tenth collapse victim was found as crews engaged in de-layering the Champlain Towers South rubble.
‘That person was processed, removed from the pile, and the operation continued,’ Jadallah said.
There are still 151 people missing from the partial collapse of the condo in Surfside, Florida, around 1.30am Thursday.
Meanwhile, construction and engineering experts who have studied a video of the collapse say it shows the building failed from the bottom and brought the higher floors down.
Greg Batista, a professional engineer who worked on the condo’s pool deck in 2017 and specializes in repairing concrete, told the Miami Herald that the pool deck area appeared to first fall into the parking garage and the remainder of the tower dropped in a ‘domino effect’.
A retired building inspector and structural engineer, Gene Santiago, agreed with Batista’s assessment. Santiago added that a 2018 inspection of the doomed building found ‘major structural damage’ underneath the pool deck.
On Monday, Jadallah said that speculation that the search and rescue effort should move into recovery after some time frame said that was ‘far from the truth’.
‘In the end there are numerous variables and facts,’ Jadallah said. ‘It’s not based on opinion. It’s not based on time.’
Jadallah said authorities would decide when to move into recovery efforts after considering all details and options.
Four days after the collapse, first responders used heavy machinery to take out debris. teams were set to switch positions later in the day ‘as a result that most of the individuals have come up upon larger concrete areas and that will require heavy machinery’, Jadallah said.
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