Rescue turns to recovery in Surfside condo collapse
A moment of silence in Surfside, Florida on Wednesday, as officials there called off the search for survivors after a building collapsed two weeks ago.
They say there's longer any hope of pulling someone alive from the ruins.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava said operations will turn to recovery as of Thursday.
"It is with deep profound sadness that this afternoon I'm able to share the extremely difficult decision to transition from operation search-and-rescue to recovery."
"At this point we have truly exhausted every option available to us in the search-and-rescue mission."
No one had been found alive since the first few hours, after part of the twelve-story Champlain Towers South condo caved in.
While no signs of life had been detected by equipment or trained dogs since then.
Round-the-clock crews have since extracted the remains of 54 people from the rubble.
However, 86 people are still missing, of those believed to have been inside the condo when it fell.
Officials say there is some possibility that they may be found elsewhere or have been double-counted.
The Assistant Chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Ray Jadallah hinted that few bodies were being found intact, and instead called the recoveries 'human remains'.
"Once we pull the victim out, we're we're recognizing is, you know, human remains, you know, typically an individual has a, you know, a specific amount of time in regards to lack of food, water and air. This, this collapse, you know, just doesn't provide any of that sort."
"Based on everything that's been given to us, that there are no live victims. What we've done now is transferred to a search-and-recovery in the search, and recovery is now shifted to finding every victim in that pile."
Investigators have still not determined what caused the building to fall apart without warning.
Though an engineering report from 2018 warned of structural deficiencies in the tower.
