See the enormity of the Surfside catastrophe: Fire captain gives video tour of site
We’ve all seen horrific images of the Surfside condo collapse, but now we can see behind-the-scenes operations up close.
Miami Dade Fire Rescue posted a video over the weekend of a walk-through of the Champlain Towers collapse site.
MDFR Capt. Tony Trim from Task Force 1 Urban Search shows the enormity of it all, taking a camera into the various tents where workers keep their tools, recharge their batteries and even take a breather from the overwhelming 24/7 operation.
Trim shows many of the site’s staging areas, starting with where teams get hosed down when they come off the debris pile, in order to ensure there is no cross contamination.
He says about 150 workers are constantly breaking and breaching large amounts of concrete and steel, with the help of heavy machinery.
“The size and scope of this operation, along with the large amounts of concrete and steel we have to move, there is just no way humanly possible we could move all of it without this heavy-duty equipment,” he says, adding that crews are using power tools so frequently that batteries are constantly needing recharging.
They also use generators, rebar cutters, chipping hammers and saws.
“You can get a full appreciation for the amount of debris, the denseness of the concrete, the amount of iron, the amount of material that we need to move,” the captain says calmly surveying the massive destruction that is reminiscent of 9/11.
By the collapsed pool and garage area, he shows yet another angle of the devastation: “This will allow you to take in how large this collapse truly was.”
The video ends with the captain’s shout-out to the staffers on site: “They are working tirelessly.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 2:26 PM.
