First victim of Miami condo disaster is identified as the mother of boy, 15, ...

The first victim of the Miami condo tower disaster has been identified as the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was dramatically rescued from the rubble with the help of a passing dog walker. 

Stacie Fang, 54, died Thursday when the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, near Miami Beach, suddenly collapsed around 1:30am Thursday morning.

The New York native was pulled from the debris and rushed to Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, but died of her injuries soon after. 

The medical examiner confirmed Friday that Fang died at 3:38am Thursday, just hours after the 12-story building was reduced to rubble. 

Fang's son Jonah Handler survived the tragedy. 

He was seen being pulled from the wreckage by first responders along with the help of man who was walking his dog past the scene when the building came down.  

The family released a statement paying tribute to Fang Friday and asked for privacy for Jonah as they grieve. 

'There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang and Handler family would like to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and support we have received,' the statement said.

'The many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much needed source of strength during this devastating time. On behalf of Stacie's son, Jonah, we ask you now to please respect our privacy to grieve and to try to help each other heal.'  

The death toll climbed to four Friday as three more bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight.

Officials said they had managed to identify three of the four victims by late Friday morning but the names of the two others were not publicly released.   

Now, almost 36 hours on from the collapse, at least 37 people have been rescued from the rubble or parts of the damaged building still standing, with 11 injured and four hospitalized.  

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said a total of 120 people have now been accounted for 'which is very, very good news' but revealed the number of people still missing has climbed to 159 - a number she warned was 'very fluid.' 

Officials had initially said 99 people were unaccounted for following the building's collapse. But, with the tower housing a mix of seasonal and year-round residents, authorities were unsure exactly how many people were inside at the time. 

This comes as:

Rescue teams dug through the rubble with their hands and heavy machinery in the hunt for survivors  159 people are unaccounted for 36 hours on from the collapse including the first cousin of the former president of Chile and the president of Paraguay's sister-in-law  Sources told DailyMail.com many people in the building were tourists from Latin America renting apartments while they traveled to the US to get COVID-19 vaccines Distraught family members handed over DNA samples and gave details of distinguishing features of loved ones in an effort to help identify any victims or survivors found  President Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida sending federal aid to help in the search  The White House said it was working to set up a phone call between Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis on the crisis Surfside Town Manager Andy Hyatt said the town would carry out 'due diligence' to find out what caused the collapse and ensure other buildings in the area are safe It was revealed that scientists had warned last year that the condo development was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s  The building was also due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year and had recently undergone construction work on its roof

A total of 55 condos collapsed on Thursday - more than a third of the 136 within the building. Around 80 percent of the building was reportedly occupied. 

Officials said Thursday they believed the building had been 'substantially full' and pleaded to the public for information about anyone who may have been inside.   

Sources close to the investigation told DailyMail.com most of the people in the building were tourists from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia and had traveled to the US to get COVID-19 vaccines which are difficult to get in their respective countries.

At least 31 Latin American citizens are currently unaccounted for - including nine Argentinians, six people each from Paraguay, Columbia and Venezuela, three from Uruguay and one Chilean - but, sources said many people are thought to have been renting the condos as Airbnbs, meaning it may be difficult to identify all the victims.

Among those known to be missing are the first cousin of the former president of Chile and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, the president of Paraguay's sister-in-law and her family, and a celebrity plastic surgeon. 

Paraguay's First Lady Silvana López Moreira arrived into Florida Thursday as her sister Sophia López Moreira, her husband Luis Pettengill, and their three young children remained missing more than 24 hours on from the disaster. The family were said to be celebrating Luis' birthday after they traveled to the US for their COVID-19 vaccines. 

With the search entering its second full day Friday, Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida and federal assistance was drafted in to Miami while questions continued to mount over the cause of the tragedy and whether it could have been avoided.    

Miami Beach State Senator Jason Pizzo told the Miami Herald he had seen one body removed from the collapse site in a yellow body bag overnight Thursday and another that was marked. 

Desperate family members gathered had handed over DNA swabs to help with the identification of the victims so far found and are being asked to detail any distinguishing features such as tattoos, scars and dental work as they anxiously wait at the nearby reunification center for news about their loved ones.  

Cava said in a Friday morning press conference it had been a 'tragic night' but she remained 'very hopeful' that more survivors will be found and insisted it was still a rescue - rather than a recovery - mission at this time. 

'We still have hope that we will find people alive,' she said.

Rescue teams were seen digging through the rubble using both heavy machinery and their hands Friday morning as they held out hope that more survivors would found. 

They had worked through the night using dogs, sonar and heavy machinery to search for signs of life as they battled with fires reigniting in the rubble.  

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadallah said Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) teams had arrived on the scene overnight following the president's emergency declaration and were assisting the 130 firefighters already on the ground.  

Jadallah said a fire reignited in the building overnight but 'it did not slow down our search and rescue operation.' 

Sounds were heard coming from the rubble, he said, fueling hope more people will be found alive.  

However, rescue teams were unable to determine if the sounds were voices of survivors or not. 

'We are listening for sounds, it's not specifically, you know human sounds, it could be...not necessarily tapping, it could be steel...it could be some of the debris kind of raining down,' said Jadallah. 

'We have hope, and every time that we hear a sound, we concentrate on that area... as we continue to hear those sounds, we concentrate on those areas.'    

The focus of the search has now turned to combing through the rubble after the parts of the building still standing were fully cleared, he added. 

'So at this point now, all resources have been shifted to the rubble, including from above and from below.'  

Heavy machinery will be used to pull some of the metal off the disaster site so teams can search for voids beneath where people could be trapped, he said.  

The mayor praised the rescue teams who are putting themselves at 'extreme risk' as they search for survivors. 

'This work is being done at extreme risk to these individuals,' she said. 

'Debris is falling on them as they do their work. We have structural engineers on-site to assure that they will not be injured, but they are proceeding because they are so motivated and they are taking extraordinary risk.'   

Biden signed an emergency declaration just after midnight authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts with state and local officials to 'save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Miami-Dade County'.   

The president was updated on the tragedy Friday morning and is expected to address the condo collapse sometime during the day. 

Biden could visit the site of the disaster in Miami next week 'if and when that would be appropriate' to the officials on the ground, a White House official told CNN.  

The president said Thursday the federal government was ready to send in assistance but could not do so until Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency - which he did not do until Thursday night.

'I say to the people of Florida, whatever help you want that the federal government can provide, we are waiting, just ask us, we'll be there,' Biden said. 

DeSantis's office said the governor will visit families at the site on Friday. 

While the focus now is on the hunt for survivors, questions are being asked about what caused the 1980s building to suddenly collapse.  

It emerged Thursday that scientists had warned that the condo building was sinking and in a potentially dangerous condition one year before it collapsed, while it was due a safety certification review for the first time in 40 years. It had also just undergone improvements to its roof. 

Authorities have not yet determined what caused the collapse and Miami-Dade police have opened an investigation - though Mayor Cava said 'there has been no evidence found of foul play.'  

Surfside Town Manager Andy Hyatt told CNN Friday morning there had been no concerns about the building's safety prior to the disaster but said the town would carry out 'due diligence' to determine both what caused it and to ensure other buildings in the area are safe.  

A 2020 study from Florida International University found the Champlain Towers South sea-view condo development was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s because it sits on reclaimed wetlands. 

The oceanfront building was also due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year which included the need for 'extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete' on parts of the structure. 

It has also been revealed that the tower had recently undergone construction work on its roof, sparking fears this may have piled on additional weight to the sinking structure.  

Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, told USA Today he knew instantly which building had collapsed when he heard news reports because he had studied the building for the report published last year.

'I looked at it this morning and said 'Oh my god.' We did detect that,' he said.  

Wdowinski said he found that Champlain Towers South was sinking at a rate of around 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s due to its position on wetlands but that rate could have slowed down or sped up since then.

However, the land's slow sinking alone would not have caused the building to collapse, he said.

'It was a byproduct of analyzing the data. We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement,' Wdowinski told USA Today.

The paper was published in April 2020 in the academic journal Ocean and Coastal Management and was part of a wider look at how buildings in Miami were sinking generally with rising sea levels caused by climate change. 

'In some locations, as in the eastern part of the city, the detected subsidence [sinking] is of a 12-story high condominium building,' the paper ominously warns.

It's not immediately clear if the 12-story building referenced in the paper is the condo that collapsed. It's also not clear if any officials took note of the paper when it comes to shoring up any dangerous conditions in the area.

In a video posted by FIU, Wdowinski said hundreds of buildings can be sinking bit-by-bit - and hundreds of buildings can have cracks, not just in Miami. 

What would cause one to collapse would be an engineering problem, he said.

Wdowinski, who has previously conducted a number of land subsidence studies including one in Mexico City, noted in the video on Thursday that the tragic Mexico City Metro overpass collapse on May 3 that killed 26 people and injured 79 others had happened in an area where he had previously detected land subsidence.  

The Champlain Towers South development was built in 1981 by the late developer Nathan Reiber's company Nattel Construction at 8777 Collins Avenue in the southeast corner of Surfside, but the structure hasn't been updated significantly since then.  

It had a few two-bedroom units currently on the market at the time of the collapse with asking prices of $600,000 to $700,000. Some have sold for more than $2 million.

The area is a mix of new and old apartments, houses, condominiums and hotels, with restaurants and stores serving an international combination of residents and tourists.  

Local officials have said the condo block was right in the middle of going through a recertification process required by Miami Dade building code - which dictates that buildings have to be re-certified every 40 years. The building was due to be recertified for the first time since its construction this year.

Kenneth Direktor, a lawyer for the Champlain Towers South Association, told The Miami Herald on Thursday that to prepare for the recertification process an engineer had been hired to plan 'structural and electrical' updates but that work hadn't started yet.

He told The New York Times that the building had been about to undergo 'extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete' but that he had seen nothing to suggest the collapse was related to issues identified in the engineering review.

Direktor added that any waterfront building as old as the Champlain Towers would have some corrosion and concrete deterioration and insisted on Thursday that it was too early to speculate about what had happened. 

The Miami Herald reported that Frank Morabito was the engineer retained by the Champlain towers but that he could not be reached for comment on Thursday. 

Direktor told The Washington Post on Thursday that the building was 'thoroughly inspected' recently as part of the recertification process and that a report on the inspection was sent to town authorities.

He described the report's findings as 'fairly typical' for a building of its age and 'did not cast doubt on its structural integrity,' according to the outlet. 

'There was nothing in the report that would have indicated a life-safety concern,' he told The Washington Post.

Surfside Mayor Charles W. Burkett said roof renovations were being done on the property but that they should not have contributed to the collapse.

'The building has literally pancaked. That is heartbreaking because it doesn't mean to me that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive,' he said.

He instead described the collapse as a 'catastrophic failure' of the building. 

'It's hard to imagine how this could have happened,' Burkett said. 'Buildings just don't fall down... There's no reason for this building to go down like that unless someone literally pulls the supports out from underneath.' 

He suggested that potential causes could be the result of the foundations being washed out or a sinkhole. 

JJI Supply, a general contracting company based in West Palm Beach, received a notice in April about the re-roofing of the building, The Real Deal reported. The outlet obtained records showing that Debra and Edward Campany of West Palm Beach lead the general contracting business.

Bruce Masia of KW Property Management & Consulting told Florida's Biz Journal that the ongoing roof renovation on the property could have added extra weight that the building couldn't withstand. 

'Buildings don't fall down right away. They fall down because there are problems and those problems need attention,' he said.

However, Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul told The Washington Post on Thursday that Champlain Towers South passed a roof inspection on Wednesday - the day before the collapse.

Jeff Rose, a contractor whose parents live in the building, told the Miami Herald that he had done renovations for some of the condos and that work on the roof had started about six weeks ago.

He added that some concrete restoration work was also being done to fix old or damaged concrete but that the concrete work was not out of the ordinary. 

'I didn't notice anything I haven't seen in many other buildings in South Florida,' Rose told the outlet.

However, an engineer who specializes in concrete repair projects told the Miami Herald that one potential structural flaw called 'concrete spalling' jumped out at him when he watched video of the collapse

The engineer, Greg Batista, described the flaw as 'concrete cancer' and said that it happens when salt water seeps into porous concrete causing steel rebar in the support beams to rust and expand - which can break the concrete and weaken the beams. 

Surfside Commissioner Charles Kesl told Local 10 that there were also 'garage underground issues' found during various inspections recently relating to the recertification process.

'And, to my understanding, there were some cracks from that project - minor cracks - that were just patched up. Nothing, based on my understanding, to the magnitude that would indicate that there was a structural problem that could result in something so catastrophic,' Kesl said.

Kit Miyamoto, chair of the California Seismic Safety Commission also spoke to Anderson Cooper and said that Miami-Dade has actually good standards to examine buildings every year.

Miyamoto said it appears likely that corrosion was a culprit as the side of the building that collapsed was the side facing the ocean. Salt water could have gotten in and corroded the metal columns in the building.

If the soil is settling, that also could have affected the columns, as they get pulled in as the ground settles, Miyamoto said.

Miyamoto called rescue efforts 'extremely dangerous' but that 'there's definitely still hope' that survivors of the building collapse could be found.

Even with concrete floors sandwiched on top of each other, air pockets are likely. People have been found in similar wreckage 'days after,' he said. 

Kobi

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