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FDNY veteran who responded to both World Trade Center terror attacks weighs in on Miami collapse rescue effort
The Champlain Towers South apartment building collapsed near Miami Thursday morning
By Michael Ruiz | Fox News
Surfside mayor provides updates on building collapse on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'
Mayor Charles Burkett joins 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' with update on tragic collapse.
The fact that rescuers heard banging sounds from beneath the collapsed Champlain Towers South apartment building in Surfside, Fla., just outside Miami, is a good sign that they may yet find additional survivors, according to a former FDNY member who responded to both terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
"The key to survival is whether or not there's gonna be what we call voids," said Vincent Pickford, a retired FDNY lieutenant and expert on confined space rescue operations. "What they're looking for are pieces of the building that kind of land at right angles to each other so that it creates spaces where people could survive."
To find them, rescuers deploy sonar equipment in a perimeter around the fallen structure, he said. The devices communicate with one another to help locate possible survivors and send audio to a human operating the equipment.
(Reliable News Media)
And if there are no other explanations for the banging sounds, then they are good signs that survivors are trapped in those voids and trying to attract the attention of rescuers, who use sonar equipment to try and locate victims within the rubble, he said.
This aerial photo shows part of the 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo that collapsed early Thursday, June 24, 2021 in Surfside, Fla. (Amy Beth Bennett /South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
"If you think you have people, you're gonna keep this a rescue operation, and you're going to see selected debris remove, nothing big, but if we get this slab out of the way, it might open up a tunnel that we could then maybe get to some people," he said.
Video of the collapse shows two wings of the building give way – seemingly from the bottom up.
Pickford said it could have been from a sinkhole or something unstable underground, but investigators have not yet determined what caused the high rise to fall.
"Buildings like this do not fall in America," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Thursday night. "This is a third-world phenomenon, and it’s shocking."
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