SURFSIDE, Fla. (NewsNation Now) — First responders did not mince words when they arrived at the scene of a deadly building collapse near Miami Thursday morning.
“We have a 13-story building with both of the buildings gone,” the responder told dispatch, according to audio from Broadcastify. “This is gonna be a high priority. We’re going to need a full assignment on this. Everybody.”
As of Thursday afternoon, one person is confirmed dead and 99 are unaccounted for.
“I see many people on their balconies,” he said on another recording. “The building is gone, there’s just nothing. I mean it almost resembles the [World] Trade Center.”
About half of the building’s 130 units collapsed, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference.
The collapse tore away walls and left a number of homes in the still-standing part of the building exposed in what looked like a giant dollhouse. Television footage showed bunk beds, tables and chairs still left inside. Air conditioner units were hanging from some parts of the building, where wires now dangled. Search and rescue operations were still underway.
“The building is literally pancaked,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. “That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene, said television did not capture the scale of what happened.
Rescue crews are “doing everything they can to save lives. That is ongoing, and they’re not going to rest,” he said.
Rubble hangs from a partially collapsed building in Surfside north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021. – The multi-story apartment block in Florida partially collapsed early June 24, sparking a major emergency response. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told NBCs Today show: My police chief has told me that we transported two people to the hospital this morning at least and one has died. We treated ten people on the site. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images) 
First Responder personnel rescue a resident from a partially collapsed residential building in Miami Beach, Florida, early June 24, 2021. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images) 
First responders arrive at a partially collapsed building in Miami Beach, Florida, on June 24, 2021. – A multi-story apartment block in Florida partially collapsed during early June 24, sparking a major emergency response. Online videos showed a large portion of the 12-story building in the town of Surfside — just north of Miami Beach — reduced to rubble, with the apartments’ interiors exposed. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
The Associated Press, Sydney Kalich and Brian Entin contributed to this report.
