60 dead in Miami apartment collapse as rescue efforts end | Miami apartment collapse

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Rescue efforts at the site of the collapse of the South Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida officially ended late Wednesday night as officials said there was no chance of life under the rubble.

Six victims were recovered Thursday morning, bringing the death toll to 60 and the number of missing to 80. Of those who recovered, 35 have been identified.

Thursday marks two weeks of the building’s collapse in the early morning of June 24. “Over the past 14 days, you all know that our search and rescue teams … have been digging through this collapse. They have used every possible strategy and every piece of technology available to them to find people under the rubble,” she said, adding that rescuers removed more than 7 million pounds of concrete and debris from the hill.

On Wednesday, the rescue teams observed a minute of silence in honor of the victims of the avalanche, marking the transition of the rescue mission to the rescue efforts.

In honor of the lives lost, rescue teams observed a moment of silence and prayer near the collapse of the Surfside Building. With heavy hearts, we begin our search and recovery efforts, and will continue to do our best as our commitment remains to reunite families with loved ones. pic.twitter.com/FJ7GKWXhXn

– Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (@MiamiDadeFire) July 8, 2021

The Florida Attorney General’s Office announced Wednesday that a Miami-Dade grand jury has agreed to investigate building safety policies at the request of state Attorney General Catherine Fernandez Randle, according to the Miami Herald. Fernandez Randle said in a statement that the grand jury will explore “recommendations to prevent such a disaster from happening again, and not just at Surfside.” The grand jury will also investigate the cause of the collapse.

The former Florida representative told NBC News that apartments were required by law to plan for repairs, but the law was repealed in 2010 after backtracking from real estate attorneys and property managers. Recent reports have revealed infighting among apartment residents in Champlain Towers South over the cost and scope of necessary repairs, halting work that had to be done on the building.

City officials began investigating the neighboring Champlain Towers North, the sister building to the collapsed apartment that was built by the same developer and around the same time, for any clues as to what caused the apartment to collapse. Engineers have begun using ground-penetrating radars to examine the structure of the building, whose exterior looks identical to the sister building.

“Since we don’t know why the first building fell, we have major concerns about that building and the residents there,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said on Tuesday. Residents of the building were given the option to move if they did not feel safe inside the apartment.

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