In the early morning hours Thursday, immediately after Champlain Towers South collapsed, fire rescue workers heard reports of a woman alive trapped in a lower level that was now inside the garage.
One rescue worker who asked to remain anonymous tells Local 10 News: “Everybody that was there, that’s what we’re trying to do, get this lady out and comfort her. ... She was asking for help and she was pleading to be taken out of there.
“We were continuously talking to her. ... ‘Honey, we got you. We’re going to get to you.’”
But a photo he shared showed what stood in their way: A dumpster, metal rebar, and a wall of concrete.
The rescue worker says he and others first on the scene rushed into that debris before anyone even knew if the building was safe, pausing only to send a quick text to his children: “Love you guys, always.”
He says he was never able to see the woman trapped inside.
“The first thing I remember is thumping on the wall and then I remember her just talking, ‘I’m here, get me out. Get me out,’” he says.
He says crews never abandoned their effort — but he later learned the woman didn’t make it.
Local 10 News also learned of an email sent by a supervisor worried about the effects of this loss on his crews, saying they were “involved with an active conversation with the female trapped next to the bed about 10 to 11 hours after the collapse. … She was aware her parents were also trapped next to her.”
The email says a fire that broke out forced crews to move back “as we know she passed.” Chiefs on scene reported, “They saw the wind knocked out of our guys…”
It will happen again because infrastructure in general is crumbling, but in one of the /r/catastrophicfailure threads about the collapse someone mentioned that Miami-Dade County actually sets a lot of national standards for building codes. The 40 year inspection cycle was the result of another building collapse in Miami back in the 1970s and that prompted them to take codes seriously. This particular tower was in the process of accepting bids for its 40 year inspection and beyond landlords being landlords the blame really belongs with the engineering firm that did the 2018 inspection. It was sloppily conducted and didn't take the structural damage seriously enough.
So... They'll blame it on someone 40 years ago, which inevitably won't result in anything happening to anyone responsible due to length of time since it happened.
And they'll update some things and the next one will be blamed on someone 40 years ago and nothing will happen.
And it'll happen again.
The buildings need inspection cycles that are short enough that the inspectors will be held responsible for getting it wrong. How can anyone be expected to take this responsibility as seriously as it needs to be taken if they won't be held responsible when found out?