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By Beth Stibal |

Commissioner: Former Surfside engineer told the board the building was safe

Building Collapse Miami
Crews work in the rubble of Champlain Towers South residential condo, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. The rescuers are searching urgently for the scores of souls buried beneath the fallen 12-story wing of the Champlain Towers condo building. As of Tuesday morning, more than five days after the collapse, the death toll stood at 11, with 150 people unaccounted for. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The search for survivors of a collapsed Surfside high-rise enters its seventh day. Teams continue to search for life in the rubble of a 12-story condo that crumbled to the ground last Thursday, killing 12 and leaving 149 still unaccounted for. Here’s more of the fire rescue radio transmission from that morning.
radio transmission Surfside

Miami Dade state attorney Katheryn Fernandez Rundle is impaneling a grand jury to investigate the cause of the collapse.
At this point, there’s lots of evidence of spalling and cracking concrete and rusted rebar, but the actual “trigger” event that caused the collapse has not been identified.
In fact the condo board president sent out a letter in April warning residents of serious problems.

Read the document here.

The average special assessment to fix the problems was over 100,000 dollars per unit.
But there was no urgency because an engineer for the Town of Surfside recently told the board the building was safe, according to commissioner Eliana Salzhauer.
She told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Tuesday night that she has only been on the board for two years and they have cleaned house getting rid of everyone responsible for mismanagement, including that engineer.

President Biden and the First Lady will visit Surfside tomorrow.

If you would like to help the victims and displaced residents of the collapse go to SupportSurfside.org.