ORLANDO, Fla. — More than a dozen rescue vehicles carrying about 40 members of Urban Search and Rescue Task Force IV drove along 36th Street were welcomed Saturday by a crowd of relatives, friends and a massive American flag displayed over the road despite the drizzling rain and humidity.
“I can’t see daddy? Where is daddy?” said two children as they ran after the vehicles to meet with their father. Others followed suit, chasing down and embracing their loved ones on Saturday afternoon, more than a week after the task force — comprised of first responders from Orange, Seminole and Lake counties — assisted operations in Surfside, where a condo complex collapsed.
So far, 24 people have been found dead and another 124 are still unaccounted for after more than a week of sifting through the wreckage at one of the Champlain Towers. Nearly 370 first responders from around Florida arrived to assist the effort along with federal and international crews working around the clock to recover the victims, made more difficult by sporadic fires, heavy rain and an unstable building.
“Every night, our members would get soaked to the bone. Every two hours, they would dry out, rinse and repeat,” task force leader Walter Lewis told reporters after their arrival.
“You have to carry on with your lives at home while he or she is put in harm’s way for days or weeks at a time,” Orlando fire Chief Craig Buckley said, addressing the families of task force members. “Your support means so much to them and inspires them to complete the mission at hand so they can return and reunite with you this afternoon.”
Task force members spent many restless days with the rescue effort, well beyond the assigned 12-hour shifts, officials said at a press briefing following their return to Orlando. In their time away, rescue crews were unable to find any survivors among the rubble.
Many of those who perished in the collapse near Miami Beach were from all over the world, mostly from Latin America, according to news reports.
“It’s not up to us to provide miracles — that’s God’s job,” Lewis said. “... Our outcome was to come home, giving solace to families who would otherwise have not gotten solid answers as to where their family members were found. While it may be somber work, we are very proud to do it.”
What first responders encountered at the site was more than pile of rubble, finding the personal effects and documents of people who once called the 12-story condo building home. Orlando Fire Department District Chief Spencer Bashinski earlier this week likened it to the wreckage left by the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
The demolition of the still-standing portions of the building will be demolished as early as Sunday.
The attention on Surfside eventually stretched to surrounding areas like North Miami Beach, where residents of Crestview Towers were evacuated after a January report received by its condo association found structural and electrical issues.
It was eventually turned over to city officials Friday after they threatened to shut down the whole building, according to the Miami Herald.
Exhaustion marked the faces of the dozens who returned home to central Florida after a week battling the weather and the urgency to recover those who are still reported missing and are likely among the rubble. But the pride of fire rescue leaders and the families who watched as their loved ones stood behind them was palpable.
“They’ll never tell you how dangerous it was, but please take it from me: It was incredibly dangerous,” Orange County Fire Rescue Chief James Fitzgerald said. “I could not be prouder of the men and women who stand behind me.”
———
