Federal investigation of Surfside begins. Mayor says Miami-Dade won’t wait on reforms

The federal agency that pushed safety reforms after investigating the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in 2001 announced a similar probe Wednesday of the Surfside catastrophe — an inquiry that will likely last years.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been in Surfside since Sunday, and confirmed its plan to launch a full investigation with an aim of discovering what caused the Champlain Towers South building’s collapse and what changes in laws, building codes and regulations could be made to prevent another failure of that kind.

“We are going in with an open mind,” Judith Mitrani-Reiser, associate chief of the materials and structural systems division at NIST, said at a Wednesday evening press conference blocks from the Surfside collapse. “With any building collapse, we would want to understand how the building was designed, constructed, modified and maintained.”

The launch of the federal probe comes as local governments and agencies are also moving forward with plans to study Surfside and explore what changes the catastrophe should bring in regulations.

Raquel Regalado, a commissioner representing parts of Miami, said she’s proposing legislation to create a commission task force to explore next steps after Surfside. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she’s assembling a group of experts to help her administration recommend changes to county rules for building regulations.

“As mayor, I have the ability to improve the way we do our certification process and so on. Legislation requires the county commission. I can assure you we’re looking at everything,” Levine Cava said at Wednesday’s press conference.

“Our job begins after this,” said Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the commission.

NIST investigations into structural failures are rare. Since the agency was given authority to investigate building collapses after 9/11, NIST has undertaken four investigations, including the World Trade Center collapse, the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire, the 2011 Joplin tornado and an ongoing inquiry into Hurricane Maria.

Surfside will be the agency’s fifth investigation. Mitrani-Reiser said the agency made the determination based on information collected on site in Surfside. At least six NIST scientists arrived at the collapse site by Sunday evening.

James Olthoff, the NIST director, said the investigation won’t seek to assign blame or negligence. “This is a fact finding, not fault finding, type of an investigation,” he said. “It will take time, possibly a couple of years.”

Olthoff also said the investigation doesn’t overlap with criminal investigations underway. Miami-Dade Police’s homicide unit has responsibility for investigating deaths from the Surfside collapse. Miami-Dade’s state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, also said she would ask the grand jury to investigate Surfside.

Levine Cava said she didn’t expect Miami-Dade to wait for NIST recommendations to consider local steps, and that the federal agency’s process will help guide county decisions.

“We learned that they hold regular meetings of their technical board that are open to the public,” she said. “So they will be discussing their findings as they go along, which I think could be very helpful.”