SURFSIDE, FLA. (WSVN) - Body camera video capturing the initial response of first responders to the site of the condo collapse in Surfside has been released.
The partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condo happened on June 24 at around 1:30 a.m.
“There’s a lot of dust. I can barely see anything,” a Surfside Police officer said. “Is anybody there? This is huge. I mean, humongous. It’s gone. The whole back of the building is gone.”
In the video, one of three Surfside Police officers who responded could be seen using their flashlights to see through the dust to get a better view of what happened.
Witnesses ran up to responding officers to tell them what they had heard.
“All of the sudden, I hear like a [expletive] jet right through the front of my [expletive] balcony,” a man said.
Chaos and confusion soon enveloped the responding officers as time passed.
“They got to get out of there,” a woman said.
“What fell? What collapsed?” an officer asked.
“I don’t know! I don’t know,” a woman said.
“Is there a fire?” an officer asked.
“No, the building collapsed,” another officer said.
Family members also showed up at the site to know what happened to their relatives. A total of 98 people died in the partial collapse of the condo.
“We’re just trying to keep these people calm,” a Miami-Dade firefighter said. “If they know people who are in specific apartments and you can gather that…”
Officers and fire rescue crews could also be seen coordinating what roads needed to be blocked for the public’s safety.
“Let’s keep everybody in front of the fire truck, everybody behind this fire truck, everybody behind your police vehicles,” a Miami-Dade firefighter said. “That’s the perimeter. Nobody in. I don’t care who they are.”
The video also captured officers evacuating nearby buildings and trying to find survivors.
“Half the building fell,” an officer said to a responding Miami Beach Police officer. “Can we check this building to see if we can have them evacuated? Because we don’t know where the other half is going to go.”
An officer asked a man, “That back part that collapsed, how many people do you think were in there?”
“I want to say probably 40% of that side was filled,” he said.
Engineers and investigators have been looking into the cause of the collapse since it happened.
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