Page 4 - Champlaign Building News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

9/11, literally. >> this is by far the most horrific thing i've seen in my life. >> the whole thing came down. it looks like a bomb went off. we're pretty sure a bomb didn't go off. >> heartbreaking for anyone still trapped inside. this stunning new hopeful. a young boy being rescued from the rubble. there are fears, understandable fears, more people could be trapped. right now more than 80 emergency teams are working to find survivors if they can. this is what the 12-story ocean front condo building looked like before this morning's collapse. and now a huge piece of that structure came down. ...

Degree. will authorities at this point have any sense as to how many people or even a rough number of people who are in the building when it came down or is it guesswork at this point? >> well, there is a process and they are trying now to gather the information, how many victims were removed, those that were in the part of the building that stayed up, the majority of them had to be rescued over fire department ladders because the stairwells were compromised. and so trying to sort out, you know, how many victims came out, where did they go, they have a unification center established, and that ...

Even though it was built before hurricane andrew before codes went into effect, it is built to withstand hurricanes. what would take something like this down? you would think it's built to withstand hurricanes. >> i think all of us are going to be interested to find what brought this down. in my almost 40 years in the fire service, i have never seen a collapse like this. this type of collapse not associated with any other forces that we know of. it just -- it bewhichilders me well. the rescue operations and recovery operations, those things need to take place, then the methodical review of how...

Had survived this tragedy. the building, it was still shaking. there was, you know, it just seemed like it was very unsteady. and i just, you know, knowing how -- what it looked like outside my door, i thought that any minute we could be that same pile of rubble. >> reporter: so, let me tell you what we have learned about the building itself. this is a building that was built in the '80s. this area, by the way, is known as sort of an upscale beach community with a mixture of old and new buildings. this building, we are told by the mayor, did have some roofing work. what role that played, still...

That the champlaign building, it's more than 130 units and about half of those have collapsed. a massive search and rescue is underway and we know that we're going to do everything we can possibly do to identify and rescue those who have been trapped in the rubble. miami-dade fire rescue is leading the efforts. they have been on the scene since the early morning and they are doing an amazing job. thank you so much to our brave, brave fire rescue workers. they have years of experience in this type of operation, and they are doing everything they possibly can do. so we need to allow them to do t...