Miami Building Collapse: One person dead, Nearly 100 Unaccounted For

A wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed in a town outside Miami, Florida early Thursday, killing at least one person, injuring another 10 or more, and prompting a massive search-and-rescue response as 99 people remain unaccounted for.

According to Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine-Cava, 102 people have been located while 99 are still unaccounted for, raising fears that the death toll could climb sharply. Officials did not know how many were in the tower when it collapsed.

“The building is 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.”

“We went running out, and we saw all the debris, and the building was just gone,” said Alexis Watson, 21, who is vacationing from Texas at a nearby hotel. “We heard a couple of people yelling, ‘Help, help, please!'”

So a building next to my hotel collapsed in Miami Beach during the middle of the night. pic.twitter.com/qLhlhRnP1X

— Jamal Akakpo 🇬🇭 (@AkakpoJamal) June 24, 2021

Dozens of units from police and fire agencies rushed to Champlain Towers South here at 1:30 a.m. after the northeast corridor of the building collapsed, reported Washington Post citing Assistant Fire Chief Ray Jadallah.

Rescuers evacuated 35 people from the building, including two recovered from the rubble.

LISTEN: Initial size up and radio traffic from this mornings Miami-Dade occupied building collapse. https://t.co/cGdTxdVlZE pic.twitter.com/MxVd2GvA6g

— Billy Goldfeder (@BillyGoldfeder) June 24, 2021

 Nearly half of the building, roughly 130 units were affected. The cause of the collapse remains unclear.