SURFSIDE, Fla. — Demolition crews have set off explosives to bring down the remaining portion of a collapsed South Florida condo.
The demolition late Sunday was key to resuming the search for victims of the collapse and even expected to open new areas for rescue teams to work in.
Rescue efforts were suspended on Saturday afternoon as officials began work preparing for the demolition. First responders are expected to resume searching for survivors Sunday night or early Monday morning.
Structural concerns about the building prompted the stoppage of search and rescue efforts for more than 12 hours on Thursday.
No one has been rescued alive since the first hours after the June 24 collapse.
Earlier on Saturday, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Lavine Cava confirmed that two more bodies were pulled from the debris overnight Friday into Saturday. The additional victims bring the death toll to 24, and another 126 who are presumed to be in the building at the time it crumbled are still missing.
Nineteen of the 24 people killed in the collapse have been identified. They are:
- Hilda Noriega, 92
- Antonio Lozano, 83
- Leon Oliwkowicz, 80
- Magaly Elena Delgado, 80
- Gladys Lozano, 79
- Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74
- Maria Obias-Bonnefoy, 69
- David Epstein, 58
- Frank Kleiman, 55
- Staci Dawn Fang, 54
- Manuel LaFont, 54
- Marcus Joseph Guara, 52
- Michael David Altman, 50
- Anna Ortiz, 46
- Anaely Rodriguez, 42
- Luis Bermudez, 26
- Andreas Giannitsopoulous, 21
- Lucia Guara, 10
- Emma Guara, 4
Officials have also confirmed that the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter was also among those killed in the collapse.
