Miami building collapse: Bodies of British mum and husband found in wreckage of collapsed block

The bodies of a British woman and her husband have been found in the wreckage of the collapsed apartment block in Florida.

Police in Miami confirmed that Bhavna Patel, who had both British and American citizenship, had been found along with her husband Vishal, after a wing of the 12-storey building in the community of Surfside near Miami came down on June 24.

But their one-year-old daughter remains unaccounted for.

So far 79 bodies have been recovered since the building collapsed last month, and another 61 remain unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the work to recover victims was “moving forward with great urgency” in order to bring closure to the families of victims who have spent an agonising two weeks waiting for news.

“This is a staggering and heartbreaking number that affects all of us very deeply,” Levine Cava said of the latest death toll.

“All those who have passed ... are leaving behind loved ones. They’re leaving behind devastated families. The magnitude of this tragedy is growing each and every day,” she said.

Rescue workers and emergency support teams from Florida and several other states have worked in 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day at the site of the devastated beachfront condominium in Surfside — physically and emotionally taxing work performed amid oppressive heat and in dangerous conditions.

“We know that there will be long-term impacts for the teams on the front line,” Levine Cava said. “They have given so much of themselves in these first two weeks.”

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said taking care of the mental health and well-being of the first responders is a priority. He said it is critical that the first responders communicate with each other. “It’s important for us to talk,” he said.

No one has been found alive since the first hours after a large section of the 12-story Champlain Towers South came crashing down in the early hours of Thursday June 24.

Hope of finding survivors was briefly rekindled after workers demolished the remainder of the building Sunday night, allowing access to new areas of debris.

Some voids where survivors could have been trapped did exist, mostly in the basement and the parking garage, but no one was found alive. Instead, teams recovered more than a dozen additional victims.

On Wednesday, workers shifted their mission from search and rescue to recovery after concluding that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble.

Levine Cava said the high death toll is “an aching hole in the center of this close-knit family here in Surfside.”

She said that with 61 people still listed as missing, detectives are continuing to audit the list to verify that all of those people were actually inside the building when it collapsed. “We want to get this right,” she said.

Miami-Dade Fire Chef Alan Cominsky said it is unclear how the long the recovery effort will take, but said crews are making progress.