Miami condo collapse: First victim is identified as the mother of boy, 15, rescued from…

The first victim of the Miami condo tower disaster has been identified as the mother of a 15-year-old boy who survived the wreckage – as rescuers said late Friday that they heard a tapping noise in the rubble yesterday that has now gone quiet even as the mayor urged people not to give up hope. 

Stacie Fang, 54, died Thursday when the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, near Miami Beach, suddenly collapsed around 1:30am that morning. She was the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was dramatically rescued from the rubble with the help of a passing dog walker.

Rescue crews from Mexico and Israel are helping with the continuing search efforts – as Surfside Town Manager Andy Hyatt told the Miami Herald that the town has ‘engaged a structural engineer to inspect other buildings in Surfside.’

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she continues to hope survivors will be rescued from the rubble at the collapsed Champlain Towers Condo site even as rescuers say that ‘tapping’ sounds they heard yesterday have ‘dissipated.’   

Fang, a New York native, was pulled from the debris and rushed to Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, but died of her injuries soon after. 

Fang’s son Jonah Handler survived the tragedy after being trapped under the frame of his bed. 

He was seen being pulled from the wreckage by first responders along with the help of man who was walking his dog past the scene when the building came down.   

Fang is one of four people so far killed in the tragedy, as rescue teams continue to comb the scene for survivors and at least 159 people are still missing more than 36 hours on. 

Her family released a statement paying tribute to her on Friday afternoon. 

‘There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang and Handler family would like to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and support we have received,’ the statement said.

‘The many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much needed source of strength during this devastating time. On behalf of Stacie’s son, Jonah, we ask you now to please respect our privacy to grieve and to try to help each other heal.’ 

Pictures of Fang and her son hugging and enjoying a day at the beach were revealed by news station WPLG 10. 

Officials had confirmed the death of a woman Thursday before recovering three more bodies from the scene overnight.   

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed that Fang died at 3:38am Thursday, just hours after the 12-story building was reduced to rubble.  

The family of the mother and son had spent the last day desperately searching for answers as to her whereabouts.

Fang’s sister Virginia Borges told the Washington Post Thursday the teen had been asking for his mother while he recovered in hospital. 

‘He was rescued, but he has no idea what happened to his mother. Nobody has any idea what happened to her. It’s like she just disappeared,’ she said.

‘He wants to know what happened to his mother. We all want to know.’

Borges had joined the family members of dozens of other missing people at the Surfside community center that day anxiously awaiting news.   

The tragic news came Friday afternoon as:

• Rescue teams dug through the rubble with their hands and heavy machinery in the hunt for survivors 
• 159 people are unaccounted for 36 hours on from the collapse including the first cousin of the former president of Chile and the president of Paraguay’s sister-in-law 
• Sources told DailyMail.com many people in the building were tourists from Latin America renting apartments while they traveled to the US to get COVID-19 vaccines
• Distraught family members handed over DNA samples and gave details of distinguishing features of loved ones in an effort to help identify any victims or survivors found 
• President Biden said Friday he had spoken with Governor Ron DeSantis and said the federal government had sent ‘the best people from FEMA down there’ 
• DeSantis vowed to ‘get the answer’ for what happened, saying people need a ‘definitive explanation’
• Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida in the early hours of Friday sending in federal support  
• It was revealed that scientists had warned last year that the condo development was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s 
• The building was also due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year and had recently undergone construction work on its roof

Dramatic footage captured the moment Jonah was rescued from the collapse site in the early hours of Thursday morning, as the teenager stuck his hand up through the rubble to attract the attention of rescue teams.

Nicholas Balboa, who was walking his dog nearby at the time the building collapsed, told Local10 he spotted the boy among the remains of what appeared to be his bed.

‘There was a bed frame and a mattress that were laying above him, so I could only assume that that was his bed, judging by the size of the mattress,’ Balboa said. 

‘You know, so he was probably just sleeping and then all of a sudden the building gave way.

‘He was saying, ‘Please don’t leave me, don’t leave me, don’t leave me.’ So I told him, ‘We’re right here. We won’t leave you.’ That’s when I tried to signal police officers and firefighters to get over there,’ Balboa said. 

Video showed the boy being carried out by firefighters on a stretcher.  

Jonah, a 10th grader at Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens, was then taken to hospital with broken bones.     

At a news conference on Friday night, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said there are currently four task force teams working on search and rescue as teams from Mexico and Israel arrived on Friday morning to help with the efforts. He did not give an exact number for how many personnel from Mexico and Israel had been sent. 

Cominsky said crews will be using heavy equipment such as cranes to help move debris on top of the sonar equipment, dogs and video cameras that they have already been using.

He said at the news conference that the main focus has been on sifting through debris underneath the parking garage. 

‘Any glimpse of hopes that we have, any signals that we see that’s where want our primary focus. This is where we’ve been focused with the operation and looking for those voids,’ he said.

Dr. Howard Lieberman, a trauma surgeon with a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue task force, told CNN that rescue crews heard ‘some tapping’ yesterday – or noise indicating that some of the victims may still be alive.

However, he told CNN that the tapping had ‘dissipated’ by Friday night but that crews have not given up hope.

‘I think these guys, you know, that’s their mindset also, they’re just going to keep going, keep going, keep going until, like I said, every stone is turned over and all the rubble is removed,’ Lieberman said.

He added: ‘We’re seeing stuffed animals, teddy bears, boxed of diapers, a child’s bunk bed, and we’re finding a lot of pictures, family pictures, and it’s, it’s a little bit more emotional than going somewhere, where you know there’s no one, let’s say for a hurricane where they had enough warning and they had evacuation time and they got out.’

Mayor Cava said at the news conference that rescue efforts will continue through the night as 159 people still remain unaccounted for after the collapse.

‘We’re going to have more resources to pay for this expensive search and rescue and to give us access to more teams for the rescue later, for the clearance of the rubble and for the assistance for the families, as they put their lives back together,’ Cava said.

She added: ‘We’re here, we’ll continue, and please stand by us. Stand by us, as we stand by the families.’

Cava told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she continues to have hope survivors will be rescued ‘because our first responders tell me they have hope.’

‘They are the ones on the ground. They are in the tunnels, they’re in the water, they’re on top of the rubble pile. They’re helping to sift through using the cameras, the dogs the sonar and they say they have hope,’ she said. 

Miami Dade Fire Rescue posted a warning to residents on Friday night about ‘smoky conditions’ after the building collapse.

‘If you live near the area of the #SurfsideBuildingCollapse, you may be experiencing smoky conditions, which can affect those with respiratory conditions. Please stay indoors, keep your windows and doors closed, and run your a/c by recirculating the air inside your home,’ the agency tweeted.

Patricia Mazzei, a reporter for The New York Times, tweeted that ‘the smoke tonight was rough’ while Fox News reporter Lauren Blanchard described the air quality as ‘thick’ and said that it ‘burns.’ 

‘The wind continues to blow it in waves – sometimes it thins out where we are … but then it kicks back up,’ Blanchard tweeted.

Rescue teams comb through the rubble as 159 remain missing 

The death toll climbed to four Friday morning as Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said three more bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight. 

Officials said they had managed to identify three of the four victims by late Friday morning but only Fang was publicly named. 

Now, almost 36 hours on from the collapse, at least 37 people have been rescued from the rubble or parts of the damaged building still standing, with 11 injured and four hospitalized. 

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said a total of 120 people have now been accounted for ‘which is very, very good news’ but revealed the number of people still missing has climbed to 159 – a number she warned was ‘very fluid.’ 

Officials had initially said 99 people were unaccounted for following the building’s collapse. But, with the tower housing a mix of seasonal and year-round residents, authorities were unsure exactly how many people were inside at the time.  

A total of 55 condos collapsed on Thursday – more than a third of the 136 within the building. Around 80 percent of the building was reportedly occupied. 

Officials said Thursday they believed the building had been ‘substantially full’ and pleaded to the public for information about anyone who may have been inside.   

Sources close to the investigation told DailyMail.com most of the people in the building were tourists from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia and had traveled to the US to get COVID-19 vaccines which are difficult to get in their respective countries.

At least 31 Latin American citizens are currently unaccounted for – including nine Argentinians, six people each from Paraguay, Columbia and Venezuela, three from Uruguay and one Chilean – but, sources said many people are thought to have been renting the condos as Airbnbs, meaning it may be difficult to identify all the victims.

Among those known to be missing are the first cousin of the former president of Chile and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, the president of Paraguay’s sister-in-law and her family, and a celebrity plastic surgeon.  

Paraguay’s First Lady Silvana López Moreira arrived into Florida Thursday as her sister Sophia López Moreira, her husband Luis Pettengill, and their three young children remained missing more than 24 hours on from the disaster. The family were said to be celebrating Luis’ birthday after they traveled to the US for their COVID-19 vaccines. 

Miami Beach State Senator Jason Pizzo told the Miami Herald he had seen one body removed from the collapse site in a yellow body bag overnight Thursday and another that was marked. 

Desperate family members gathered had handed over DNA swabs to help with the identification of the victims so far found and are being asked to detail any distinguishing features such as tattoos, scars and dental work as they anxiously wait at the nearby reunification center for news about their loved ones.   

Cava said in a Friday morning press conference it had been a ‘tragic night’ but she remained ‘very hopeful’ that more survivors will be found and insisted it was still a rescue – rather than a recovery – mission at this time. 

‘We still have hope that we will find people alive,’ she said.

Rescue teams were seen digging through the rubble using both heavy machinery and their hands Friday morning as they held out hope that more survivors would found. 

They had worked through the night using dogs, sonar and heavy machinery to search for signs of life as they battled with fires reigniting in the rubble.  

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadallah said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) teams had arrived on the scene overnight following the president’s emergency declaration and were assisting the 130 firefighters already on the ground.   

Jadallah said a fire reignited in the building overnight but ‘it did not slow down our search and rescue operation.’ 

Sounds were heard coming from the rubble, he said, fueling hope more people will be found alive.  

However, rescue teams were unable to determine if the sounds were voices of survivors or not. 

‘We are listening for sounds, it’s not specifically, you know human sounds, it could be…not necessarily tapping, it could be steel…it could be some of the debris kind of raining down,’ said Jadallah. 

‘We have hope, and every time that we hear a sound, we concentrate on that area… as we continue to hear those sounds, we concentrate on those areas.’    

The focus of the search has now turned to combing through the rubble after the parts of the building still standing were fully cleared, he added. 

‘So at this point now, all resources have been shifted to the rubble, including from above and from below.’  

Heavy machinery will be used to pull some of the metal off the disaster site so teams can search for voids beneath where people could be trapped, he said.  

The mayor praised the rescue teams who are putting themselves at ‘extreme risk’ as they search for survivors. 

‘This work is being done at extreme risk to these individuals,’ she said. 

‘Debris is falling on them as they do their work. We have structural engineers on-site to assure that they will not be injured, but they are proceeding because they are so motivated and they are taking extraordinary risk.’     

President Joe Biden says the federal government has ‘provided all the help they need’ after declaring a state of emergency in Florida 

President Joe Biden said Friday he had spoken on the phone with Governor Ron DeSantis and had sent ‘all the help they need’ to Florida to assist in the rescue mission. 

Biden said his administration had sent ‘the best people’ from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) there and said his ‘heart goes out’ to the families left waiting for answers about their loved ones.  

‘There’s so many people waiting. Are they alive, will they be, what’ll happen? And so our heart goes out to them,’ Biden said at a White House event where he signed a law declaring the Pulse Night Club a national monument.

‘I promise you, the administration and Congress will do everything possible to be of assistance now and after this occurs, after they decide exactly what the state of play is,’ he said.  

‘We’ve provided all the help that they have, they need. We sent the best people from FEMA down there.’

He added: ‘We’re going to stay with them, with the disaster declaration we made, provide for everything from housing to, God forbid, whether there’s a need for [mortuaries] for the bodies to be placed. Everything in between.’ 

Biden compared the tragedy with the Pulse mass shooting which was the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in American history.  

‘Just first want to say, and I’m sure I speak for all the members of the Congress here today and all the survivors here, that it’s a tough, tough time,’ he said.   

Biden signed an emergency declaration just after midnight authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts with state and local officials to ‘save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Miami-Dade County’. 

The president said Thursday the federal government was ready to send in assistance but could not do so until Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency – which he did not do until Thursday night.

‘I say to the people of Florida, whatever help you want that the federal government can provide, we are waiting, just ask us, we’ll be there,’ Biden said.  

The president could visit the site of the disaster in Miami next week ‘if and when that would be appropriate’ to the officials on the ground, a White House official told CNN.      

Governor Ron DeSantis says Floridians need a ‘definitive explanation’ for what led to the tragedy 

DeSantis confirmed in an afternoon press conference that he had spoken with Biden Friday as he vowed to ‘get the answers’ families and the people of Florida need for what had caused the 1980s condo building to suddenly collapse. 

The governor thanked the president for sending in federal support and for ‘stepping up to help people who are in need.’

‘I just spoke about an hour ago with President Biden, and he reiterated his administration’s full support. They’re all in,’ DeSantis said. 

‘And so we really appreciate having the support of the President and the people of Florida. Really appreciate the President and his administration stepping up to help people who are in need.’ 

As questions continue to mount over the cause of the tragedy and whether it could have been avoided, DeSantis said the state expected to get a ‘definitive explanation for how this could have happened.’ 

‘The state will support whatever we can to do this right, but also to do a timely, so that we get the answers to the families, and then we get the answer to the people of Florida,’ he said. 

The governor paid a visit to the families gathered at the reunification center, as they wait for news about their loved ones.    

Experts are sent to the scene to examine the collapse after 2020 report warned the 12-story building was sinking one year ago  

While the focus now is on the hunt for survivors, questions are being asked about what caused the 1980s building to suddenly collapse. 

A team of scientists and engineers from the federal government agency responsible for leading investigations into building failures is now being sent to the collapse site to gather information on what went wrong.   

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) told The Hill the experts will ‘work with federal, state and local authorities to identify and preserve materials that might be helpful in understanding why the collapse occurred.’ 

The assistance from the group, set up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, comes as speculation continues to build over whether this week’s tragedy could have been avoided.    

It emerged Thursday that scientists had warned that the condo building was sinking and in a potentially dangerous condition one year before it collapsed, while it was due a safety certification review for the first time in 40 years. It had also just undergone improvements to its roof. 

Authorities have not yet determined what caused the collapse and Miami-Dade police have opened an investigation – though Mayor Cava said ‘there has been no evidence found of foul play.’ 

Surfside Town Manager Andy Hyatt told CNN Friday morning there had been no concerns about the building’s safety prior to the disaster but said the town would carry out ‘due diligence’ to determine both what caused it and to ensure other buildings in the area are safe. 

However, it has emerged that a 2020 study from Florida International University found the Champlain Towers South sea-view condo development was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s because it sits on reclaimed wetlands. 

The oceanfront building was also due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year which included the need for ‘extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete’ on parts of the structure. 

It has also been revealed that the tower had recently undergone construction work on its roof, sparking fears this may have piled on additional weight to the sinking structure.  

Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, told USA Today he knew instantly which building had collapsed when he heard news reports because he had studied the building for the report published last year.

‘I looked at it this morning and said ‘Oh my god.’ We did detect that,’ he said.  

Wdowinski said he found that Champlain Towers South was sinking at a rate of around 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s due to its position on wetlands but that rate could have slowed down or sped up since then.

However, the land’s slow sinking alone would not have caused the building to collapse, he said.

‘It was a byproduct of analyzing the data. We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement,’ Wdowinski told USA Today.

The paper was published in April 2020 in the academic journal Ocean and Coastal Management and was part of a wider look at how buildings in Miami were sinking generally with rising sea levels caused by climate change. 

‘In some locations, as in the eastern part of the city, the detected subsidence [sinking] is of a 12-story high condominium building,’ the paper ominously warns.

It’s not immediately clear if the 12-story building referenced in the paper is the condo that collapsed. It’s also not clear if any officials took note of the paper when it comes to shoring up any dangerous conditions in the area.

In a video posted by FIU, Wdowinski said hundreds of buildings can be sinking bit-by-bit – and hundreds of buildings can have cracks, not just in Miami. 

What would cause one to collapse would be an engineering problem, he said.

Wdowinski, who has previously conducted a number of land subsidence studies including one in Mexico City, noted in the video on Thursday that the tragic Mexico City Metro overpass collapse on May 3 that killed 26 people and injured 79 others had happened in an area where he had previously detected land subsidence.  

The Champlain Towers South development was built in 1981 by the late developer Nathan Reiber’s company Nattel Construction at 8777 Collins Avenue in the southeast corner of Surfside, but the structure hasn’t been updated significantly since then.  

It had a few two-bedroom units currently on the market at the time of the collapse with asking prices of $600,000 to $700,000. Some have sold for more than $2 million.

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.  

Local officials have said the condo block was right in the middle of going through a recertification process required by Miami Dade building code – which dictates that buildings have to be re-certified every 40 years. The building was due to be recertified for the first time since its construction this year.

Kenneth Direktor, a lawyer for the Champlain Towers South Association, told The Miami Herald on Thursday that to prepare for the recertification process an engineer had been hired to plan ‘structural and electrical’ updates but that work hadn’t started yet.

He told The New York Times that the building had been about to undergo ‘extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete’ but that he had seen nothing to suggest the collapse was related to issues identified in the engineering review.

Direktor told The Washington Post on Thursday that the building was ‘thoroughly inspected’ recently as part of the recertification process and that a report on the inspection was sent to town authorities.

He described the report’s findings as ‘fairly typical’ for a building of its age and ‘did not cast doubt on its structural integrity,’ according to the outlet.  

Surfside Mayor Charles W. Burkett said roof renovations were being done on the property but that they should not have contributed to the collapse.

‘The building has literally pancaked. 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,’ he said.

He instead described the collapse 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.’ 

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

Bruce Masia of KW Property Management & Consulting told Florida’s Biz Journal that the ongoing roof renovation on the property could have added extra weight that the building couldn’t withstand.  

However, Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul told The Washington Post on Thursday that Champlain Towers South passed a roof inspection on Wednesday – the day before the collapse.

Jeff Rose, a contractor whose parents live in the building, told the Miami Herald that he had done renovations for some of the condos and that work on the roof had started about six weeks ago.

He added that some concrete restoration work was also being done to fix old or damaged concrete but that the concrete work was not out of the ordinary.   

Some people in Surfside had previously raised concerns about the integrity of the aging building. 

Barry Cohen, 63, the former vice mayor of Surfside, said he raised concerns years ago about whether nearby construction might be causing damage to the building after seeing cracked pavers on the pool deck.

In 2015, a resident also sued in 2015 claiming building management did nothing to repair cracks from water damage.