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Rescuers Recover Additional Body From Florida Building Collapse, Death Toll At 5

Members of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue team look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on Saturday. Rescuers found an additional body Saturday.
Joe Raedle
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Members of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue team look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on Saturday. Rescuers found an additional body Saturday.

Updated June 26, 2021 at 10:51 PM ET

Rescue workers in Surfside, Fla., recovered a body amongst the rubble of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South on Saturday, bringing the death toll to five.

Authorities also notified the families of three previously unidentified victims, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Saturday evening, changing the total to 156 missing and 130 accounted for.

The Miami-Dade Police Department identified four of the five victimsin a tweet on Saturday night. They are: Stacie Dawn Fang, 54; Antonio Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79; Manuel LaFont, 54.

Mayor Levine Cava told reporters that rescue efforts had made some headway. A deep-seated fire in the rubble that had been hindering rescuers had been mostly extinguished, allowing personnel to more effectively search through the debris.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said rescuers were continuing an "aggressive search and rescue strategy." He said responders were able to contain the fire and minimize smoke Saturday morning. They were continuing to search for people using sonar, canines and video equipment, he said.

Authorities are collecting DNA samples from family members of the missing people to help identify potential victims.

Meanwhile, residents of the building a block over, Champlain Towers North, are also anxious about the soundness of their building. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters the North building was built at about the same time, by the same developer and, "probably built with the same plans, it was probably built with the same materials."

Burkett said a Surfside building official inspected the Champlain Towers North and a "cursory review" did not find anything out of order. But it wasn't a "deep dive." He said that would likely take a couple weeks to complete and the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be able to assist residents with housing if they want to evacuate. But at the moment there is no mandatory evacuation order for the north building.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

James Doubek is an associate editor and reporter for NPR. He frequently covers breaking news for NPR.org and NPR's hourly newscast. In 2018, he reported feature stories for NPR's business desk on topics including electric scooters, cryptocurrency, and small business owners who lost out when Amazon made a deal with Apple.
Dustin Jones is a reporter for NPR's digital news desk. He mainly covers breaking news, but enjoys working on long-form narrative pieces.