Page 3 - Void Spaces News Today

More difficult, because there are not many more void spaces, and where the people may be trapped, but it is more difficult, and with that, not just collapsed as a pancake, but again, the rubble, and the debris is so densely packed, it leaves little room for voids. but the chances are very slim at some point. >> at some point, it is going to be a recovery effort. what is involved to make that determination? >> so all of the aspects are considered, and the time that it collapsed, the situation now...

What are you using to make a decision in this case? >> ultimately the leader of miami-dade county. i provide the information. we look at the type of collapse, the internal environment, the heat, humidity, the tire, and the presence or absence of void spaces. so we try to look at all of that to try to put together a package to make an educated decision and based on the probability. >> let me go to you to talk more about how this happened in the first place. fears of residents of another related t...

Confirming these details. it says an estimate was provided to make, in their words, extensive and necessary repairs. now, i spoke, earlier, about rescue efforts with the 20 -- about the 2018 report with john butler. he is the fire chief for the fairfax county fire and rescue department in virginia. heres some of what he had to say. >> we have talked about the -- the fires with an unuknown origin. it seems to be under control right now. but theres secondary collapses. or potentially, disrupting o...

This building, and so i would just be speculating. i couldnt comment on that. >> what about how long a search like this can go on? at what point does it shift from rescue to recovery? i mean, is there a breaking point? >> theres absolutely going to be a transition. its going to have to happen. a lot of factors are taken into place. the type of collapse, the type of extraneous issues, including the fire, including the water, and also the presence or absence of void spaces. all of those things are...

Drilling down into those void spaces. so developing a very not cool, very systematic, deliberate plan in order to effect as much rescue as possible. thats whats taken place right now. and theyre doing it as i would do it. theyre doing it as i would have implemented the plan. theyre starting to layer some of the large pieces of concrete and see if they can unearth any other void spaces. again, this is a process that takes a considerable amount of time. and when you have evacuations from lightning...

Out week -- a week after a collapse? >> absolutely. i was the team leader in haiti. and we rescued, as you heard earlier, a -- a -- a small child eight days after the earthquake. so, thats why these rescuers continue to have hope. if void spaces can be detected, there is the possibility that people are still alive. were not outside the window of sur survivability in this type of collapse. a pancake collapse is -- is one of the worst types of collapses you could have. as you said, the lean to whe...

The rubble, those who are lightly trapped. all through the day and night last night, they have been conducting more meticulous void searches and area searches. also, they have been trying to stabilize the areas that need to be stabilized. we had heard earlier about, you know, the danger of a secondary collapse. theyve got monitoring devices on the existing building. paying attention to any movement of that building. they are also trying to secure some of those -- some of that hanging debris. so,...

To you live. as we wait, chief downey, to your point when you see collapses like this around the world, you sometimes get happy surprises days later, right? i mean, you can, you can find survivors many hours or days after the event in the best of circumstances. >> yes. i mean, in the best of circumstances. the early hours are going to be the greatest chance for survival. the type of collapse is going to dictate how, you know, how viable victims could be depending on how big the void spaces are. ...

Looking at this site and they were very quick to say that everything that could have been done is being done. now, as it related to this investigation that will take months if not longer to find the original source of the cause of this collapse, that 2018 engineering report at the request of the condoboard showed significant structural deficiency, cracks in certain concrete beams, areas of problems within the foundation that while they were acknowledged back then an millions of repairs were call...