Firefighters leave food, water for cat left behind on fourth floor of collapsed Surfside condo
City of Miami firefighters on Monday, using a cherry-picker truck, left food and water on the balcony of a still unstable fourth-floor apartment at Champlain Towers for a cat named Coco left behind after the condo collapsed last week.
In the immediate hours after the massive failure, the focus was on rescuing residents trapped in the still-standing part of the 12-story building in Surfside. But now, five days in and with hundreds of search teams still looking for survivors or human remains, some effort is also turning toward abandoned pets.
It’s unclear how many might have been left behind. On Monday night, a drone was sent up to look into the eastern side of the building but none were spotted.
But there apparently is at least one cat, a black and white tuxedo named Coco — owned by an 89-year-old woman and her daughter who were pulled to safety from a corner fourth-floor apartment by firefighters after the early morning collapse. After hearing about the cat, Miami Commission Chair Ken Russell helped initiate the move to feed Coco and look for other lost pets.
Russell said the door to the wraparound balcony, which is partially lost, is open, giving the cat access to the outside. But trying to rescue the cat right now is considered too dangerous. The cat has apparently been seen on the west side of the apartment facing Collins Avenue.
The family’s dog, named Rigatoni, was rescued by firefighters on Thursday along with the woman and her daughter.
“But in the rush of evacuating an unstable building,” Russell said, “firefighters could not wait to find the cat.”
Russell said he was told about Coco by a constituent who was friends with the people who lived in the fourth-floor apartment and he contacted Miami Fire Rescue about feeding the cat. By Tuesday morning, he said he had been in contact with Friends of Miami Animals and was working on creating a database of missing pets so they can be reunited with family if they are found.
The hope is also that at this point any rescued pet would offer some much-needed comfort to family members who have lost so much in the unprecedented disaster.
As of early Tuesday, the death toll stood at 11, and as many as 150 more people could be missing.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
