SURFSIDE, Fla. — The empty oceanfront land that once was home to the Champlain Towers South condo building slowly filled with people again early Friday morning.
The families of the 98 victims who died when the building collapsed a year ago, in the early morning hours of June 24, gathered under a large white tent at the eastern edge of the 1.8-acre lot in Surfside — separated by a yellow fence from an overhang leading down to the concrete-and-steel ruins.
At 1:22 a.m., the crowd of a few hundred family members and invited guests marked the one-year anniversary of the building collapse. The glow from torches lit up the tent as family members embraced each other. Town workers lit a separate gas torch across from the site at Veterans Park, where it will remain until July 20, the day the last collapse victim was recovered.
