The demolition Sunday night—on Independence Day—happened after search and rescue missions battled heat, humidity and a pending tropical storm or hurricane that could complicate things further.
The demolition happened around 10:30 p.m. ET Sunday night, with holes drilled into columns of the remaining columns at Champlain Towers South in Surfside. The explosion sent plumes of smoke filling the muggy South Florida air.
Here is one view of the demolition.
About five seconds into the video:
Another view that was 4 seconds into the video:
Tropical Storm Elsa, which is approaching southern Cuba on Sunday night, is forecast to skirt the western coast of Florida and miss the Miami metro area altogether. But in South Florida, they know these storms could take unexpected turns, which is why officials decided to call off the searches and destroy the tower.
“The fear was that the hurricane may take the building down for us — and take it down in the wrong direction, on top of the pile where we have victims,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said Saturday.
Once the site is declared safe to reenter and resume search and removal, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said they would continue looking.
“We will begin search and rescue on any sections that are safe to access as soon as we are cleared,” Levine Cava said Saturday.
The collapse in Surfside happened around 1:15 a.m. local time on June 24. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah said approximately 55 of the condo’s 136 oceanfront units were destroyed.
Hundreds of first responders immediately went to work to rescue survivors. Now, over a week into it, they were still searching through huge piles of concrete rubble—all while racing against time as Hurricane Elsa enters the Caribbean Sea and threaten all of South Florida.
The Miami Herald reported last week that the Champlain Towers contacted an engineer in 2018 to complete its 40-year recertification process, and that significant repairs were needed.
In April this year, its condo association said repairs to the building were urgently needed. By May, the condo association submitted plans to the city for temporary parking so they could start making those fixes. The Surfside building department emailed the association back on June 23 with logistical questions, but the building collapsed 14 hours later—before anyone could respond.
