SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) – Rescue workers pulled a 10th fatal victim from the rubble of a collapsed Florida condominium on Monday, as officials vowed to keep searching for any possible survivors five days after the 12-story building fell without warning as residents slept.
Crews were using cranes, dogs and infrared scans as they looked for any signs of life amid the ruins, hoping air pockets may have formed underneath the concrete that could be keeping some people alive.
“We’re going to continue and work ceaselessly to exhaust every possible options in our search,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news briefing. “The search-and-rescue operation continues.”
There are 151 people still unaccounted for, Levine Cava said.
The cause of the collapse remains under investigation.
An engineer wrote a report in 2018 documenting major structural damage in the concrete slab beneath the pool deck and concrete deterioration in the underground parking garage.
Weeks later, a town official reassured residents that the building was in “very good shape,” according to an NPR report.
(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien, Peter Szekely and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Alistair Bell)
