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mahatmakanejeeves

(66,687 posts) Tue Sep 9, 2025, 07:54 PM Sep 9

Surfside condo investigators believe deadly collapse started in the pool deck

Source: ABC News

Surfside condo investigators believe deadly collapse started in the pool deck

Federal investigators announced their preliminary findings on the 2021 collapse.

ByJared Kofsky
September 9, 2025, 5:00 PM ET
• 4 min read

The fall of the Champlain Towers: Tracking the Surfside collapse A look at the Miami condominiums' 40-year lifespan, using public records, expert accounts and access to footage of the collapse and the aftermath. David Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

More than four years after the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Florida, that killed 98 people, federal investigators announced their preliminary findings on Tuesday regarding the cause of the tragedy.

Members of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee found that there were possible issues near the pool deck in the hours, days and weeks leading up to the June 2021 collapse, including a leak from the ceiling, a gate door being stuck and a vertical shift involving a gate.

"Recent work indicates that it is MORE LIKELY that the failure started in a pool deck slab-column connection than we considered in June," the presentation slides stated.

Associate Lead Investigator Glenn Bell acknowledged during the meeting that this has been a difficult investigation since there were “pretty widespread problems with the building, both in design and construction.”

{snip}

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/surfside-condo-investigators-deadly-collapse-started-pool-deck/story?id=125402385

Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2025/09/feds-fl-condo-collapse-stemmed-from-pool-deck/

Feds: FL Condo Collapse Stemmed From Pool Deck
September 9, 2025

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Surfside condo investigators believe deadly collapse started in the pool deck (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Sep 9 OP

There was a lot of evidence when it happened that the pool area was a major contributer ToxMarz Sep 9 #1

.....In 2022, the site was sold to Dubai-based luxury developers for $120 million. riversedge Sep 9 #2

Minor point: it's tied with the collapse of the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre as the third-deadliest. mahatmakanejeeves Sep 9 #3

YIMBY moreland01 Wednesday #4

ToxMarz

(2,558 posts)

1. There was a lot of evidence when it happened that the pool area was a major contributer

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Tue Sep 9, 2025, 08:45 PM

Sep 9

to the collapse if not ground zero. Videos of the collapse, pre-collapse inspection reports and photos, pre-collapse engineering reports and photos This just says what appeared obvious was in fact obvious. Great progress.

riversedge

(77,749 posts)

2. .....In 2022, the site was sold to Dubai-based luxury developers for $120 million.

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Tue Sep 9, 2025, 08:57 PM

Sep 9

https://www.joemygod.com/2025/09/feds-fl-condo-collapse-stemmed-from-pool-deck/

......................
Read the full article. The incident is the third-deadliest “non-deliberate” structural collapse in US history and spawned a rewriting of Florida laws regarding building inspections. In 2022, the site was sold to Dubai-based luxury developers for $120 million.

mahatmakanejeeves

(66,687 posts)

3. Minor point: it's tied with the collapse of the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre as the third-deadliest.

Reply to riversedge (Reply #2)

Tue Sep 9, 2025, 09:06 PM

Sep 9

The Champlain Towers South collapse ties with the Knickerbocker Theatre collapse as the third-deadliest non-deliberate structural engineering failure in United States history. The deadliest is the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse and the second deadliest is the collapse of the Pemberton Mill.

That event is remembered here at DU every year.

Tue Jan 28, 2025: On the night of Saturday, January 28, 1922, the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C., collapsed.

So is the Hyatt Regency.

Thu Jul 17, 2025: On this day, July 17, 1981, a walkway collapsed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri.

And good evening.

moreland01

(842 posts)

4. YIMBY

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Wed Sep 10, 2025, 12:01 AM

Wednesday

Our local pro-growth Fort Collins, Colorado YIMBY (Google it) chapter wants to race to build our way to "affordability" by partnering with developers, the Chamber of Commerce and Realtors and greatly reducing building code standards. It's a national movement. They also colluded to fill our City Council with YIMBY candidates for this November's city election. If they win, we should expect shoddy construction, limited escape routes (single stair requirements), possible building condemnations and collapses, etc. And after all that, there's so much demand for housing from wealthy people here that developers will never give up profits to build affordable housing. We need to strengthen building codes, not reduce them. Affordable housing for essential workers can only be done through Federal/State/Local projects and nonprofits, not for-profit developers. And they call themselves Democrats!

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