Miami-Dade official: Demolition of collapsed condo building to start Sunday

By AP 3 July 2021, 6:06 pm

Edit

Search and rescue personnel work atop the rubble at the Champlain Towers South condo building, where scores of victims remain missing more than a week after it partially collapsed, on July 2, 2021, in Surfside, Florida. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Florida — A top Miami-Dade fire official tells family members of people missing in the rubble of a collapsed condo building that rescue workers planned to demolish the remainder of the building on Sunday.

Worries have intensified over the past week that the damaged structure could come tumbling down on its own, endangering the crews below and complicating the search for victims.

Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah tells family members during a briefing this morning that the building will be brought down “as soon as possible. First thing tomorrow.”

But he cautions that there “may be some hiccups.” A follow-up meeting this afternoon will be held to finalize details of the demolition, which could be a precarious operation, as experts enter the building to bore into the structure to install explosives.