Demolition will begin at the site of a building collapse in Florida

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Officials said the remainder of a collapsed apartment building in Florida will be demolished Sunday night between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.

The unstable structure, which hampered search and rescue efforts at the site of the deadly landslide, must be demolished to continue work on the site, said Daniela Levine Cava, Mayor of Miami-Dade, as 24 people are confirmed dead and 121 are still missing.

“Putting out the building in a controlled manner is critical to broadening our search, you know, into the pile, and allowing us to search in the area closest to the building,” Kafa said at the briefing.

She said area residents have been warned to keep windows and doors closed to avoid dust from demolition entering their homes — “there may be noise.”

Cava also addressed concerns about some pets that might be left in this part of the building – and who urged delaying demolition until they are found.

“As an animal lover and pet owner, I have made it a priority from day one to do everything possible to search for an animal that may still be on the premises,” she said.

A building under construction near the media district on Sunday, July 4, 2021 in Surfside, Florida, where plans to demolish the Champlain Towers have been submitted. Carl Jost/The Miami Herald via AP

And in the days following the collapse, the Miami-Dade fire rescue team conducted three complete surveys of the building, including searching in closets, under beds, and all other places where they could look for an animal that might be hiding, she said.

Champlain Tower just south of Surfside collapsed just before 1:30 a.m. on June 24, burying nearly 150 people in the rubble.

Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli colonel leading one of the rescue teams said he believed there was a “close to zero” chance that survivors would be found under the rubble.

Demolition specialists finished boring holes and began planting explosives in them Sunday as they prepared to demolish the perilous but still standing part of a collapsed South Florida apartment building.

“The conditions we’ve seen in the past two days are very difficult for me to say professionally that I think there is a strong chance of finding someone alive,” Colonel Golan Fach told WPLG-TV in an interview.

Hundreds of first responders, including the Israeli team, began sifting through the rubble after the collapse, with work halting for 15 hours Thursday and again Saturday due to concerns about the remaining structure.

The decision to demolish the rest of the building, which was initially expected to take weeks to complete, was accelerated with Elsa’s upcoming arrival in the Sunshine State.

A partially collapsed apartment building as rescue operations halt, in Surfside, Florida, July 4, 2021.

Forecasters said the storm was likely to hit areas further west than Surfside, but Governor Ron DeSantis said tropical storm winds could hit the collapse site as late as Monday.

The controversy over the collapse continued to grow, with new reports of potential building defects and recently revealing that a building manager had criticized Surfside officials just three days ago about stalling in needed repairs.

The building was constructed in 1981 and was to be retrofitted to obtain the required 40-year rehabilitation, which was put on hold for years after a 2018 engineer’s report cited major structural concerns near the pool area.

The cause of the collapse has not been reported, but some experts believe the pool area, which was located above an underground parking garage, was the center of the tragedy.

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