Where are the pets? Mayor says crews searched Surfside condo units before demolition
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In defending the efforts to save family pets left behind in Surfside’s Champlain Towers South, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava says rescue workers went into condos on Sunday looking for animals before the building was demolished.
“They were, at great risk to themselves, searching inside those units that had been indicated that might have pets and searching very thoroughly,” she said Monday.
On Saturday, Levine Cava had said any pet search before the demolition wouldn’t involve going into units because “it is not safe for anyone to go beyond the first floor.”
By Saturday night, a change.org petition to “Stop the demolition until all animals are safe!” had 4,300 signatures. It closed with 18,077. An animal-rescue volunteer tried to halt the demolition with a Sunday night emergency motion that would allow her to go into the building to bring out the pets. A Miami-Dade judge denied the motion.
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On Monday, unprompted, Levine Cava returned to the issue of the demolition and any pets that might have still been in what remained of the Surfside apartment building.
She said crews did everything possible to find and rescue pets.
“Doorways were opened, other means for the pets to escape the building if they were able,” she continued. “We deployed drones with thermal imaging on numerous trips over the rubble pile and standing in the tower, in areas unsafe for search and rescue teams to enter.”
Arthur Holmes Jr., assistant county fire chief for operations, said that on Sunday the agency deployed a single firefighter on a balcony of the remaining structure to conduct sweeps, hours before demolition. “They went from the second floor to the eighth floor, searching multiple units,” Holmes said after the Monday morning briefing.
As the county’s full-time mayor, Levine Cava oversees the Surfside operation and sits atop a chain of command that includes Fire and Rescue. A longtime cat owner, Levine Cava adopted two cats from the county animal shelter last month, following the recent death of a cat, Michelle, she’s had since 2008.
“I have emphasized to Fire and Rescue from the beginning the importance of leaving no stone unturned when it comes to finding these animals,” she said in an interview. “But I do not substitute my own judgment for theirs about what is safe. I’m bringing to their attention I am hearing there are pets, and if it is safe, please go again.”
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