Woman asks judge to stop Surfside building demolition to save a pet. It didn’t work
This story has been updated with details from a court hearing on Tuesday.
Shortly before the demolition of the Champlain Towers South on Sunday night, an animal-rescue volunteer went to the courts to try to save stranded pets. This last-ditch attempt did not work.
In an emergency Zoom hearing on Sunday night, attorney Paula Phillips appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman, asking that her client, Stacy Karron, be allowed to go into what remained of the building to rescue pets. Karron, the lawyer said, would waive any clams of liability.
“They understand the risk,” Phillips said. “They understand the building can come down at anytime.”
Judge Hanzman denied the motion, saying he did not want to second-guess the decision to demolish the building.
The hearing wrapped up about 10 p.m. Sunday. About 10:30 p.m., the explosives carefully placed in concrete pillars were detonated, imploding what remained upright of the unstable condo building that had threatened rescue efforts. The successful demolition allowed search-and-rescue crews to resume looking for survivors and bodies early Monday.
“Despite these Herculean efforts and the tireless, daunting work that has been done, there is going to be loss of life here,” Hanzman said. “Loss of human life and animal life.”
The judge is handling several initial lawsuits stemming from the Surfside collapse. So far, at least five lawsuits have been filed against the condo association for the collapse, in which at least 24 people have been killed. More than 120 people are still unaccounted for.
Karron, 57, is a paralegal from Broward County who works on a volunteer basis rescuing animals. Reached by phone late Sunday, she said she was trying to rescue any pets left behind in the building. She is not a party in the lawsuits and did not live in the building.
“My goal was just to go down there and try and rescue any pets if I was allowed,” said Karron as she drove home from Surfside. “I have experience with animal rescue and I volunteered to go in.”
Karron said she had been unable to speak directly with any homeowners who had left their pets behind.
“Nobody came forward. I guess they didn’t want to go back in the building. It was too traumatizing,” she said.
In her emergency motion, she mentioned an emotional-support animal that lived on the fourth floor. A cat named Coco lived in a fourth-floor apartment with an 89-year-old woman and her daughter. Miami firefighters, unable to rescue the cat because of unsafe conditions, left food and water for the animal last week.
An attorney for Miami-Dade County, Dave Murray, opposed the motion, saying the building was loaded with explosives and that in order for Karron to go inside, rescue crews would have to further risk their lives because they would be forced to go back inside and check on the charges.
“This is not a case where the county has sat on their hands,” Murray said.
Hanzman, it turns out, mistakenly believed that Karron was the owner of a pet in the building. On Tuesday, Hanzman called a court hearing and told Phillips that he felt misled into thinking Karron was a victim of the Surfside tragedy.
“This is a very important case. It’s a very tragic case. I have a lot of emergencies that I have to address in this case,” Hanzman said. “I’m disappointed to find out through the media that your client resides in Broward and has no relationship with this pet.”
Hanzman chided the attorney, asking her to imagine if Karron — or others — had been hurt in the unstable building had she been allowed to “traipse into the building to get a cat that she didn’t own.”
“Can you imagine what the fallout of that would be?” Hanzman asked.
Phillips apologized to the court. “I just did the best I could and I’m really woefully sorry,” she said.
Since the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South, several efforts were made by the county to rescue any surviving animals, Murray said. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava had stressed during earlier briefings that no pets were found as rescuers made thorough searches through the remaining building, including three full sweeps, using animal life traps and thermal technology.
Arthur Holmes Jr., assistant county fire chief for operations, said that on Sunday the agency deployed a single firefighter on a balcony of the remaining structure to conduct sweeps, hours before demolition. “They went from the second floor to the eighth floor, searching multiple units,” Holmes said after a Monday morning briefing.
This story was originally published July 4, 2021 at 11:29 PM with the headline "Woman asks judge to stop Surfside building demolition to save a pet. It didn’t work."
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