Death toll rises to five in Miami building collapse as another body is pulled from the rubble

Another body has been found by search and rescue teams in the rubble of a collapsed 12-storey tower block near Miami on Saturday, raising the death toll to five as they raced against time to recover any survivors while fighting back fire and smoke deep inside the concrete and metal remains.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the new toll at an evening media briefing, saying the discovery of the body dropped the number of unaccounted for down to 156.

She said crews struggling throughout the day in the debris also found other unspecified human remains.

The Miami-Dade Police Department said four of the five deceased had been identified, along with the apartments where they were at the moment of the collapse. One was the mother of a boy who was rescued the night the building toppled, another couple in their late 70s and early 80s and a 54-year-old man.

The mayor also added that the reason the missing number went down by three was because authorities had identified three bodies. Officials said the remains they find are being sent to the medical examiner, and they are also gathering DNA samples from family members to help identify them.

Throughout the day, she noted, rescue workers continued to go over the massive mountain of debris with rescue dogs and sonar searching for any survivors. “Our top priority continues to be search and rescue and saving any lives that we can”, she said.

• ITV News US Correspondent Emma Murphy reports on the ongoing rescue operation as fires plague the effort

Earlier, emergency workers said their efforts to recover any survivors were being hampered as they battled fire and smoke coming from deep inside the concrete and metal pile of rubble.

Rescuers used infrared technology, thousands of gallons of water and foam to battle the "very deep" blaze, the source of which is unclear. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said rescuers faced “incredible difficulties” because of the flames. A fire hose blasted one of the lower floors on the north side of the tower as white smoke or steam streamed out, and a bitter, sulfur-like smell hung in the air. “The stench is very thick,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

Rescue and recovery teams from across the country are arriving in Miami to help in the efforts, with each team working in half-hour rotations in grueling conditions.

"It's a lot more devastating in person than it is in pictures," rescue worker Captain Rick Vila said. "If we save one life that makes it all worthwhile," he added.

A 2018 engineering report on the building revealed that the seafront block of flats had “major structural damage” to a concrete structural slab below its pool deck that needed to be extensively repaired.

The report was among a series of documents released by the city of Surfside as rescuers continued to dig on Saturday through the rubble of the building in an effort to find any of the 156 people who remain unaccounted for after its collapse.

While the engineering report from the firm of Morabito Consultants did not warn of imminent danger from the damage, and it is unclear if any of the damage observed was responsible for the collapse, it did note the need for extensive and costly repairs to fix the systemic issues with the building.

It said the waterproofing under the pool deck had failed and had been improperly laid flat instead of sloped, preventing water from draining off.

“The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.

“Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” the report said.

The firm recommended that the damaged slabs be replaced in what would be a major repair.

The report also uncovered “abundant cracking and spalling” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage.

It also noted that many of the building’s previous attempts to fix the columns and other damage were marred by poor workmanship and were failing.

Beneath the pool deck “where the slab had been epoxy-injected, new cracks were radiating from the originally repaired cracks”, the report said.

At the site where the building once stood, scores of rescuers used big machines, small buckets, drones, microphones and their own hands to pick through the mountain of debris that had been the 12-storey Champlain Towers South.

On Saturday, a crane could be seen removing pieces of rubble from a more than 30ft pile at the site.

Meanwhile, firefighters were still dealing with smoke that continued smouldering underneath the rubble.

Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava told WPLG on Saturday that there was no change in the number of people still unaccounted for.

“We are at status quo,” she said. “I’m hopeful this will be a day that we will have a breakthrough.”

Rachel Spiegel was anxious for any update on her missing mother, 66-year-old Judy Spiegel, who lived on the sixth floor.

“I’m just praying for a miracle,” Ms Spiegel said. “We’re heartbroken that she was even in the building.”

Hopes rested on how quickly crews could complete their grim task in Surfside, just a few miles north of Miami Beach’s South Beach.

“Any time that we hear a sound, we concentrate in that area,” Miami-Dade assistant fire chief Raide Jadallah said.

“It could be just steel twisting, it could be debris raining down, but not specifically sounds of tapping or sounds of a human voice.”

Surfside mayor Charles Burkett said crews were doing everything possible to save as many people as they could.

“We do not have a resource problem, we have a luck problem,” he said.