Miami building collapse: death toll rises to 18 nearly a week after Florida disaster
- Officials said they hope to find survivors, although no one has been pulled alive from the site since June 24. There are still 147 people missing
- Two teams of dogs are helping to scour the pile: one trained to sniff out survivors, the other trained to detect bodies
Six more bodies have been found in the ruins of a collapsed Miami-area condominium tower in the past 24 hours, the mayor of Miami-Dade County said on Wednesday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 18 nearly a week after the building fell.
No one has been pulled alive from the site since the early hours of the disaster. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said 147 people remained missing and feared trapped in the ruins of the Champlain Towers South condo. She said two of the 18 confirmed fatalities were children, aged 10 and 4.
“The loss of children is too great to bear,” Levine Cava said. “Our community, our nation and the world all are mourning with these families who have lost loved ones.”
Officials have said they still harbour hope of finding survivors.
“This is going to go until we pull everybody out of there,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said, when asked by reporters when the rescue mission might switch to a recovery operation. “We’re not leaving anyone behind.”