Miami building scheduled to be demolished collapsed Thursday morning
MIAMI - A two-story Miami building that was vacant and scheduled to be demolished collapsed early Thursday morning.
Miami Fire Rescue Captain Ignatius Carroll said they received a call just after 3 a.m. about a structure collapse at NW 18th Avenue and 3rd Street.
"As our unit arrived they noticed debris in the street and what looked to be some type of residential structure that had collapsed. They requested additional units to respond including our technical rescue team," said Carroll.
He said they checked to see if there was anyone in the house or anyone in need of assistance. Carrol said since the building had been scheduled to be torn down, the roof had been removed making the structure "vulnerable" to the stormy conditions of Wednesday night.
A woman who moved out of the building to a home nearby said she remembered
it had a lot of issues.
"It was unsafe, parts of the ceiling fell in the dining room like about two years ago or so, and I feel it was very damaged, very damaged, completely," said Norma Martinez.
Carroll said officers became concerned after speaking with neighbors.
"Many neighbors came out and informed us that this house was indeed vacant but it had been known to be frequented by a homeless person. So that raised some concerns," said Carroll.
He noted that a shopping cart and bicycle used by that person were found in the area.
Carroll said as the weather conditions started to improve and they had daylight, they were able to bring out search and rescue dogs to do a preliminary search of that area.
"Once we were on the scene, before the dogs arrived, we did do a search with the technical rescue team using what we call pole cameras to look into various areas of what we call voids. This type of collapse is what you call a pancake collapse which comes down right on top of each other. It makes it very difficult for us to search without having to use heavy equipment to remove layers," said Carroll.
Miami Fire Rescue worked with the building department and a heavy equipment company to remove some of the debris. They then again searched with the rescue dogs but did not find anyone.
The collapse affected several adjacent buildings. In one of the buildings, it caused the roof to collapse and its residents were displaced. In another building, the occupants of a duplex were told to evacuate because a wall of the building that collapsed was still standing and it was feared that it would fall onto the duplex.