Members of an urban South Florida search and rescue team are searching for potential survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South apartment building on Saturday. Rescuers found an additional body on Saturday.
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Joe Riddell / Getty Images
Members of an urban South Florida search and rescue team are searching for potential survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South apartment building on Saturday. Rescuers found an additional body on Saturday.
Joe Riddell / Getty Images
Rescue workers in Surfside, Florida, found a body among the rubble of the partially collapsed Champlain South Towers on Saturday, bringing the death toll to five.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava said Saturday night that authorities informed the families of three previously unidentified victims, changing the total to 156 missing and 130 missing.
The Miami-Dade Police Department has identified Four of the five victims In a Saturday night tweet. They are: Stacie Dawn Fang, 54; Antonio Lozano, 83 years old; Gladys Lozano, 79; Manuel Lafont, 54.
Mayor Levin Cava told reporters that rescue efforts had made some progress. A deep-rooted fire in the rubble that was hampering rescuers was put out, allowing personnel to search more effectively among the wreckage.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Kominsky said rescuers are continuing a “rigorous search and rescue strategy.” He said that responders were able to contain the fire and reduce the smoke on Saturday morning. He said they are continuing to search for people using sonar, canines and video equipment.
Authorities are collecting DNA samples from family members of the missing to help identify potential victims.
Meanwhile, residents of the atop a building, the North Champlain Towers, are also concerned about the building’s safety. Charles Burkett, the mayor of Surfside, told reporters that the North Building was erected around the same time, by the same developer, and “maybe built with the same plans, probably built with the same materials.”
Burkitt said an official at the Surfside building inspected the Champlain North towers and the “rapid review” found nothing out of order. But it wasn’t a “deep dive”. That could probably take two weeks to complete, he said, and FEMA would be able to help residents with housing if they wanted to evacuate. But at the moment there is no mandatory evacuation order for the North Building.
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