Surfside Memorial Honors 98 Lives Lost In Condo Collapse: Watch

SURFSIDE, FL — One year ago, in the early morning hours of June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South partially collapsed in the small South Florida town of Surfside, taking 98 lives in seconds.

For weeks, first responders sifted through the rubble, searching first for survivors before turning their focus to recovering bodies.

The town is hosting a memorial service Friday at 10 a.m. to mark the one-year anniversary of the condo’s collapse at the site where the building once stood. (Watch a video of the memorial from USA Today below.)

Among those speaking at the public event are First Lady Jill Biden, Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, state Sen. Jason Pizzo, Florida’s state fire marshal and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Israeli Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, according to the Miami Herald.

“It's a uniquely difficult day — for the ones who lost everything, and especially for the ones who lost someone they love — mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors. My heart is with all of you today,” Levine Cava tweeted Friday morning.

The condo collapse is considered one of the deadliest structural building failures in the U.S., according to the New York Times. It was also Florida’s largest emergency response that wasn’t a hurricane.

First responders, families and others affected by the tragedy recall the horrific collapse one year later.

“I can still smell it. You can still see the sadness. To watch the people on the pile, to me, was the worst,” Officer Jihovanna Mayorga-Garcia, Miami Police Department, told WSVN.

Capt. Shawn Campana with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue K-9 Response added, “It’s still tough to think about some things, to look at some of those pictures to, you know, to talk to people without getting teary-eyed. I think it’s going to take more time, you know, for many of us.”

Nick Fusco, whose grandparents, Maria and Gonzalo Torre, died in the condo collapse, told Patch that the past year has “been really tough.”

“It’s been extremely tough, but we’re blessed to have a tight family and we have a support team in each other,” he said. “It keeps our spirits more lifted than if we wouldn’t have been so close and knowing how our grandparents were and how they lived their lives, it keeps us positive despite what happened.”

Watch a video of Friday's Surfside memorial service for the 98 victims of last year's Champlain Towers South collapse: