FL Condo Collapse: FF Compares Scene to World Trade Center

June 30, 2021

“The building is gone," said one of the first Miami-Dade firefighters at the Surfside condo collapse in recently released internal radio communications.

One of the first Miami-Dade firefighters to reach the scene of the collapsed Surfside condo tower compared it to Ground Zero following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to radio dispatch recordings.

“The building is gone," an Engine 76 firefighter told a dispatcher in internal radio communications obtained by WTVJ-TV. "There are no elevators. It almost resembles the Trade Center."

Rescue workers continued scouring the rubble of the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South on Wednesday, as the death toll rose to 12 with 149 still missing, the Miami-Herald reports. So far, crews have dealt with rain and heat, and they've moved away three million pounds of concrete from the scene.

But with possible storms in the forecast as hurricane season begins, three federal search and rescue teams have been put on stand-by in the event of severe weather incidents. Currently, all the members of the Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force are working in Surfside.

"Due to the recent five-day forecast with two storms, we decided that it would be best to go ahead and activate them," Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky told the Herald.

In the audio from first responders moments after last week's collapse, crews explain how to approach and assess the scene. An Engine 44 firefighter also described what witnesses heard when the building came down.

"They said it sounds like they heard a bomb," he said.