"His wife is destroyed," said Janet Romera, who lives next door. "The poor woman doesn't want to talk to anybody about this. They're a humble family. He's a hard worker and provided for his family."

In Kendale Lakes, where Hurtado lived, a note posted on his door asked reporters to respect the family’s privacy.

Jose Calderon, who also died, worked more than 30 years in construction and had two children, according to WSVN.

“He loved his job so much, for 30 years” his wife told the station.

Bill Byrne, president of Ajax Building, came to the site of the collapse Thursday and said his company is working with local, state and federal authorities to determine what caused the collapse.

“At this time, we are properly focused on the tragic loss of life ... and helping the families involved,” said Byrne, who at times appeared distraught.

Authorities and Byrne wouldn’t yet say what caused the collapse and said they wouldn’t speculate.

“We’re working on the recovery effort but it’s going to take time. We’re trying to come up with a plan to move as quickly as possible while making sure that no one else gets hurt,” Doral Police Chief Ricardo Gomez said. “There are various theories as to how it happened but that’s going to be a question for the engineers.”

While hundreds of rescuers scoured the wreckage Wednesday, the site was far calmer Thursday. Engineers and workers with hard hats mostly looked at what remained of the parking deck. Two cranes towered over the construction site. A third crane was parked down the street outside the construction site.

The campus was to remain closed at least until the end of the week to the nearly 8,000 students who attend.

Groups of police clutching clipboards huddled with men in fluorescent vests who periodically climbed down from the pile of rubble.

The garage, scheduled to open in December, was to alleviate parking for the fast-growing campus, which opened in 2007. The West Campus had been growing at an astounding 40 percent annually, and a warehouse was being used for parking.

The college has been working on renovating the campus to better accommodate student demand. The garage would have had the capacity to house at least 1,500 vehicles.

The section of the garage that fell was the final piece, with a wall to be used by the college as a movie screen or a theatrical backdrop.

Byrne said that the catastrophe was the worst in his career. He said there was “no warning whatsoever” and that while projects like this one are “fast-paced” on a deadline, he said the work was not rushed.

The company said on its website in an Oct. 1 update that the garage’s civil infrastructure had been installed along the courtyard and amphitheater.

A concrete subcontractor was working on ramps and stairs. The structural steel subcontractor was installing the roof steel assembly. Waterproofing had begun on the second floor.

On Wednesday, something went horribly wrong.

“It sounded like thunder. The whole place shook,’’ said Miami Dade College Professor William Duba, who was in a stairwell in another building, when he heard the garage crumble.

Miami-Dade College is bringing in structural engineers to check the stability of a next-door classroom building shook by the garage collapse, according to school spokesman Juan Mendieta.

The collapse caused officials to evacuate the campus and close roads Wednesday. Traffic on 115th Avenue remains closed to all but local traffic.

Miami Herald staff writers Paradise Afshar, Julie Brown, Audra Burch, Jessica DeLeon, Anna Edgerton, Diana Moskovitz, Mike Vasquez, Luisa Yanez, El Nuevo Herald staff writer Melissa Sanchez, and researcher Monika Leal contributed to this report, which was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.