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Death toll from Surfside building collapse now at 79 victims

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Surfside Memorial Wall
Posted at 5:30 AM, Jul 09, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-09 17:57:20-04

There are now 79 victims of the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida Friday evening. Officials recovered 15 victims Friday; 14 were found in the early morning hours and another person was located during the day.

Another 61 people who were presumed to be in the building at the time of the collapse are still missing.

"This is a staggering a heartbreaking number that affects all of us very, very deeply," Levine Cava said.

Cava shared a touching story of a cat, Binks, who lived in the collapsed tower and was found alive near the rubble pile. The cat has been reunited with its family, Cava said.

Officials also confirmed Friday that two rescuers and one police officer were injured overnight while working at the site.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said that one rescuer suffered a cardiac event. That rescuer was rushed to the hospital and is currently stable. The second rescuer suffered a laceration which required several sutures.

Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez III said that a police officer who was working traffic duty at the site had his foot run over by a passing truck. That officer was taken to the hospital and is expected "to be OK."

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett noted that the rubble pile, which initially stood "four or five stories high," is now at ground level. Officials have removed millions of pounds of debris from the stack.

These are the names of the victims that have been made public at this time.

  • Hilda Noriega, 92
  • Gino Cattarossi, 89
  • Graciela Cattarossi, 86
  • Claudio Bonnefoy, 85
  • Antonio Lozano, 83
  • Gonzalo Torre, 81
  • Magaly Elena Delgado, 80
  • Leon Oliwkowicz, 80
  • Simon Segal, 89
  • Gladys Lozano, 79
  • Nancy Kress Levin, 76
  • Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74
  • Elaine Lia Sabino, 71
  • Gloria Machado, 71
  • Maria Obias-Bonnefoy, 69
  • Tzvi Ainsworth, 68
  • Francis Fernandez, 67
  • Ingrid Ainsworth, 66
  • Gary Cohen, 58
  • David Epstein, 58
  • Andrea Cattarossi, 56
  • Bonnie Epstein, 56
  • Frank Kleiman, 55
  • Staci Dawn Fang, 54
  • Manuel LaFont, 54
  • Marcus Joseph Guara, 52
  • Harold Rosenberg, 52
  • Jay Kleiman, 52
  • Michael David Altman, 50
  • Graciela Cattarossi, 48
  • Anna Ortiz, 46
  • Anaely Rodriguez, 42
  • Ruslan Manashirov, 36
  • Juan Alberto Mora Jr., 32
  • Luis Bermudez, 26
  • Andreas Giannitsopoulous, 21
  • Lucia Guara, 10
  • Emma Guara, 4
  • Maria Teresa Rovirosa, 58
  • Luis Lopez Moreira III, 3
  • Sophia Lopez Moreira, 36
  • Luis Pettengill, 36
  • Vishai Patel, 42
  • Bhavna Patel, 36
  • Deborah Berezdivin, 21
  • Juan Alberto Mora, 80

Officials have also confirmed that the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter was also among those killed in the collapse. That girl's name has not been made public at the request of the family.

Thursday marked the two-week anniversary of the spontaneous partial collapse of Champlain Towers South. Levine Cava said that workers paused at 1:30 a.m. Thursday to honor the moment when the tower fell.

Thursday marked the first full day of "recovery" efforts. Previously, first responders had been in "search and rescue" mode, but officials determined on Wednesday that it would be impossible to find any survivors remaining in the rubble.