More Than 50 People Are Missing In The Aftermath Of A Miami Apartment Collapse
The building crumbled early Thursday morning.
In the early morning of Thursday, July 24, a Miami apartment building collapsed, killing at least one person and leaving dozens of others trapped in the rubble.
A massive tower of the condo building crumbled to the ground near Miami Beach and, according to County Commissioner José Díaz, 51 people who were believed to have been in the building have not yet been accounted for.
The building was 12 storeys high and there is no clear answer as to what caused the collapse. According to the Sun Sentinel, there was roof work being done at the time, but it is doubtful that that was the cause of the disaster.
Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, said that all of the survivors are believed to be out of the tower, according to The Miami Herald. The death toll is expected to climb as the search and rescue mission continues.
"The building is literally pancaked," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said at a news conference. "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."