12 Floors Gone in 12 Seconds - Surfside Condo Disaster Explained 

What do you think was the cause of the collapse?

That was an incredible video, Ashley. Congratulations! It is probably the most comprehensive take on the disaster I've ever seen so far, not to mention the top video quality and edition 👏👏

Good video, you got 99% of the details. Your summary of the various factors involved was pretty good. One important thing that has been discovered is that the pool deck started to collapse at least 2 or 3 weeks prior to the night of the disaster, possibly as much as several months. Photos emerged showing evidence that the first column(s) punching through the pool deck occurred long before the final collapse. It was one or more of the columns in the vicinity of the planters at the east end of the ground level parking area, where the photos showed that the slab had dropped by possibly as much as 2 or 3 inches. Unfortunately, the junior engineer who inspected it and took the photos failed to understand the significance of what he was seeing and essentially just added it to the list of repairs; he also failed to fully inspect the structure in the vicinity of the quite visible problem and took no action to get emergency shoring installed around the collapsing part of the deck. On the fire exits, CTS had another design problem. The west stairwell, in the part of the building which survived the collapse, was blocked by the collapse of the pool deck. The ground floor exit from it was onto the pool deck, with no direct access from the stair into the lobby; this was likely lost in the initial pool deck collapse, prior to the collapse of the tower itself. The only other exit was into the basement garage, which did remain open but had no route to the street after the eastern portion of the tower collapsed. Some people escaped via the west stair through the garage by climbing over rubble and vehicles to get up to ground level. So, some of the calls from people saying they didn't know how to get out, after the full collapse, were due to them essentially being trapped in a structure which no longer had any properly useable escape stairs. Getting quite technical now. There's a very important arrangement of beams on the south side of the eastern wing which are highly likely responsible for the pool deck collapse being able to trigger the tower collapse. Between columns KLM 9.1 and KLM 11.1, there was a sort of double-H (viewed in plan) beam arrangement, with some very substantial beams which tied into the KLM 9.1 columns that were likely the first tower columns to fail. KLM 9.1 is a 2-bay section in the middle of the south wall of the eastern wing, and the first part of the tower to visibly collapse. The double-H beams supported the patios and pool deck, and were likely severely compromised by the pool deck collapse. In turn, as they fell, they likely caused fatal damage to KLM 9.1, starting the countdown to full collapse. Those beams were essentially an Achilles' heel in the design.

One important aspect of this disaster was also addressed by a new law in Florida. At the time of the collapse a condo association was permitted to elect to waive funding a maintenance account. Many people in these condos are on fixed income and did not want to pay any more monthly fees People purchase a unit in an aging building which already has maintenance issues and they really can't afford the payments that are actually necessary for the building. When they have an inspection and the engineer says "OMG your building needs $10 million in repairs immediately", well they don't have it. Collectively, the residents of that building would not be able to pay that amount. Condo living in Florida is going to be too expensive for a lot of people.

Congratulations You make very informative videos which are very helping. Keep it up

I was a firefighter when I was younger and the acceptable time we were expected to make it to a call was 10 minutes or less. That may seem like a long time but we have to get out of bed too, which doesn't take much time, then we have to get into our structure fire gear in a minute or less, get everyone on the engine, and head out. On all the 911 calls I was on, we probably took less than five minutes but our area wasn't that busy or that big so it didn't take very long to get to anywhere within it. The only time it took me longer to get to a call, it was because we had a water tender at the station so we got called to a wild fire probably 15-20 minutes away from our station. They already had many crews fighting the fire and our job was to pump water into the engines fighting the fires, got to the hydrant to fill our tank back up, and then go back to refill the engine. We did that all day and night, which was critical, but it wasn't something we lit up the lights and sirens for like the 911 calls. One thing I will add about firefighting and emergency response in general is to remind people that if they see our flashing lights and/or hear our sirens, please pull to the right hand side of the road because one time someone just stopped right in front of our engine between two concrete curbs since there was a median. My captain, who was also the engineer, said some words that I won't repeat and had to swerve the engine onto the wrong side of the road to get around this person who panicked and just stopped, which is worse that continuing to drive sometimes. There are 500 gallons of water in the back of your standard fire engine and I can tell you personally that the sloshing of that water exerts an impressive force when you have to slam on your brakes or swerve so please just pull to the right. Thank you! I will also say that the absolute best advice that I can give to anyone in any situation that produces strong emotions, whether they be fear or anger, or whether they be more pleasant feelings like happiness or excitement. If it's a dire situation, especially if it's actually dangerous, don't panic. You can't stop the physiological reactions that will happen in your body and tempt you to panic but you can head them off at the pass and keep your mental capacity. The best way to do this is to remember that usually good decisions are not made when one is feeling strong emotions so panic will only make you much more likely to end up getting hurt or killed so rule number one is always don't panic. The second rule is less important and it is to not make any significant decisions while you are feeling significant emotions, even if they are pleasant ones. Especially in the case of pleasant emotions, the decision doesn't have to be made right away and it is wise to wait until the wave of the strong emotion passes to make your decisions. This can also be done with decisions when you're feeling a strong negative emotion so long as it isn't over a fire all around you (see the dog drinking coffee in a flaming room meme). I have also lived in an apartment complex where there was a fire but it was in my own apartment and right in front of my face! I was asleep so it's lucky the fire started right by my face or I might have just died but I woke up because it was hot. What had happened was that we had wall heaters in my apartment and my roommate and I had them both on because it was cold outside. We both fell asleep and, like I said, I only woke up because the fire made it too hot! lol I didn't evacuate immediately either. I called for my roommate to call 911 and I actually put the fire out myself by simply turning the wall heater off. It was an electrical fire and so shutting off the power to it stopped the fire and it hadn't been burning long enough to catch the actual wall on fire. The fire department came to make sure anyway and they blew all the smoke out of our apartment too, which was nice. It is the right decision to call 911 first. In fact, the first step when you find someone who needs CPR is to either call 911 yourself first or have someone else call while you start CPR but you always call first so the medics can start towards you as soon as possible. CPR is a lifesaver but sometimes you need a defibrillator and that will be coming on the ambulance and fire truck, which will both be on their way to help. The first patient I ever did CPR on needed the defibrillator but I kept any of his tissues from dying for lack of blood flow with CPR. As a result, he woke up angry for a few seconds because he said it hurt but he quickly realized that he had had a heart attack and what hurt was both the CPR and the electric zap of the defibrillator. He had two heart attacks, both right in front of us, and it took the defibrillator to get him back both times but I don't think he suffered any permanent damage because of CPR. It does go to show that getting medics rolling is the first priority, even though your heart strings are going to want to start CPR right away for this person in front of you but always call for backup unless you are 911 and you have all your equipment.

In looking at the other investigative videos, it's clear there were design flaws and issues with sea water in the garage for decades. The homeowners association didn't do a lot to address issues and concerns. It seems it should never have been built.

Great video, but it seems to me that most of the causes are directly related to "Money" and it is sad that most likely some of the steps or processes were ignored or added for either making more money or saving money.

Thank you Please can you tell me about this question? I am from Syria, an architect I love Canada very much.. and I want to travel to Canada but I don't know what are the best places for engineers to live in Canada... Please can you tell me what are the best places for engineers to live?

When that close to the salt water it should be mandatory that they use Stainless Steel rebar, so it won't rust!!!!!

I am VE5VV this is a bit technical but still 1- concert can last an extremely long time with no steel see the The Pantheon almost 900 years old 2- I still dont know why this building needed a pool in the first place 3- the extra story in this building really should not have caused collapse 4- it should not be up to residence to inspect there building for structural stability 5- there are major problems with the design of the colons and how they connected to the slabs ( where are the sturips and coulomb reinforcements in those coulombs , and why are rebars shooting out from them ) 6- why did the city not immediately order an evacuation from the building when its condition was known to the city 7-Why was the hole building not evacuated when a problem was noted !!!!!! 8- its all well and good to have stairs but some people can not use stairs and stair wells must not have there exists only clogged with debris , everybody must be able to evacuate , not only the able bodied ( this is not 1940s Germany and we cant just let the disabled die ) 9-If there is a fire put your hand on the door before opening it and see if it is hot , if the door is hot do not open it , have a smoke mask , have a long rope , have a wool blanket( yes 100% wool ) you can soak to escape under 10-Do not just report problems to building management they have an monetary interest in keeping the revenue coming in , also inform the fire department or city who have an interest in people still being alive ( those are not even close to the same thing )