Emergency workers gave up hope of finding survivors in the collapsed Florida condo building, telling sobbing families that there was “no chance of life’’ in the rubble as crews shifted efforts to the recovery of remains.
Wednesday’s announcement followed increasingly somber reports from emergency officials seeking to prepare families for the worst.
“At this point, we have truly exhausted every option available to us,’’ Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. “We have all asked God for a miracle, so the decision to transition from rescue to recovery is an extremely difficult one.”
Eight more bodies were recovered Wednesday, bringing the toll to 54. Thirty-three of the dead have been identified and 86 people are still unaccounted for.
Assistant fire chief Raide Jadallah told families that crews would stop using rescue dogs and listening devices but would continue to search for remains. “Our sole responsibility at this point is to bring closure,’’ he said as relatives cried in the background.
Unlike collapses that create W-shaped spaces where people can survive, a “pancake collapse” like the one in Surfside tends not to leave livable spaces, Jadallah said.
“Where a pancake collapses, unfortunately it is a floor or a wall on top of a floor on top of a floor,” he said.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said he expected the recovery operation to take several more weeks.
The formal change was to take place at midnight. Hours before the official transition, rescue workers joined local officials, rabbis and chaplains in a moment of silence beside the rubble
