DES MOINES, Iowa —

An Iowa task force has completed its search for survivors at the site of a partially collapsed Davenport apartment building without finding three missing people who are feared dead, authorities said Friday. The focus has shifted to shoring up the structure so recovery efforts can begin.

The remains of the six-story apartment building were constantly in motion in the first 24 to 36 hours after it collapsed on Sunday, which officials said posed a risk to rescuers who were trying to search for survivors.

"We do what the building tells us to do," Rick Halleran, the task force's Cedar Rapids division chief, said of the delay in searching the building.

City officials earlier this week said that Brandon Colvin, Ryan Hitchcock and Daniel Prien were unaccounted for and had "high probability of being home at the time of the collapse." All three have since been listed in the National Database of Missing Persons.

The state task force was mobilized and on-site to first search for survivors and then secure the structure, Halleran said. He said the search for survivors was completed Thursday evening after electrical equipment connected to the building were controlled. The state's search and rescue team, search dogs and cameras were used in the search Thursday.

Officials fear the unstable building will eventually collapse on its own. Adding to the challenge is a giant pile of brick and steel at the base of the building that is helping to hold up the structure but also may contain the remains of people killed in the collapse.

Video above: Surveillance video shows a support brace bending before Iowa building collapse

"We are doing the best we can to balance the building conditions and the safety of our responders," said Fire Chief Mike Carlsten. He said conditions have forced a response that may take "days and weeks" instead of what ideally would have been minutes or hours after the collapse.

Mayor Mike Matson has said the debris pile "could be a place of rest for some of the unaccounted" and stressed the city would be sensitive about those remains, comparing work at the site to an archeological dig.

Work to bring down the building comes amid questions about why neither the owner nor city officials warned residents about potential danger even after a structural engineer's report issued last week indicated a wall of the century-old building was at imminent risk of crumbling.

Documents released Wednesday night show city officials and the building's owner were warned for months that parts of the building were unstable.

"Do I have regrets about this tragedy and about people potentially losing their lives? Hell yeah. Do I think about this every moment? Hell yeah," Matson said Thursday. "I have regrets about a lot of things. Believe me, we're going to look at that."

City officials said Thursday that they did not order an evacuation because they relied on the engineer's assurances that the building remained safe. Matson promised to improve inspections and to investigate what happened.

Scott County prosecutor Kelly Cunningham cautioned Friday against assuming a criminal prosecution is appropriate in the case, saying an independent investigation needs to be conducted into the cause of the building's structural failure, and right now it's in the city's jurisdiction.

The building collapsed shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday. Rescue crews pulled seven people from the building in their initial response and escorted out 12 others who could walk on their own. Later, two more people were rescued, including a woman who was removed from the fourth floor hours after authorities said they were going to begin setting up for demolition.

Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel said transient people also often entered the building but there was no indication anyone else was inside and missing.

Andrew Wold, the building's owner, released a statement dated Tuesday saying "our thoughts and prayers are with our tenants." He has made no statement since then, and efforts to reach him, his company and a man believed to be his attorney have been unsuccessful.

County records show Davenport Hotel L.L.C. acquired the building in a 2021 deal worth $4.2 million.

Tenants had complained to the city in recent years about a host of problems they say were ignored by property managers, including no heat or hot water for weeks or even months at a time, as well as mold and water leakage from ceilings and toilets. While city officials tried to address some complaints and gave vacate orders to individual apartments, a broader evacuation was never ordered, records show.

City officials ordered repairs after they found seven fire code violations on Feb. 6. However, they were told three weeks later by building maintenance officials that "none of the work was completed," records show.

Rich Oswald, the city's director of development and neighborhood services, confirmed Thursday that the city's chief building official, Trishna Pradhan, resigned in the aftermath of the collapse.

Pradhan had visited the building on May 25, and erroneously reported it had "passed" an inspection in notes in the city's online permitting system, Oswald said.

Pradhan attempted to change the inspection result to "incomplete" on Tuesday — after the collapse — but a technical glitch instead listed the outcome as "failed," he said. Oswald said the "incomplete" status is the correct status since the repair work was unfinished.

The city later clarified that Pradhan resigned voluntarily and not in lieu of termination.

Calls and text messages to Pradhan were not immediately returned.

Assistant City Attorney Brian Heyer said he is unaware whether the city had considered earlier civil enforcement action to protect residents. Only after the collapse did the city file a civil infraction seeking a $300 fine against Wold for failing to maintain the structure in a safe manner. He will be required to pay for the cost of demolition, Heyer said.

___

Foley reported from Iowa City. Associated Press reporter Summer Ballentine contributed from Jefferson City, Missouri.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —

A man and a woman are confirmed dead after a firetruck crashed into a building in Kansas City's Westport neighborhood, and a third unidentified woman has also been found dead.

The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A Kansas City Fire Department firetruck was heading to a fire call, with lights and sirens on, when it hit an SUV.

The firetruck then crashed into a building. Firefighters said two people who died, a man and a woman, were in the SUV.

Firefighters spent late Wednesday night searching for someone in the rubble of the building. No firefighters were seriously hurt in the crash.

"They went back to the station, I sent them home for the evening. Just because they were shook up as well," Fire Chief Donna Lake said.

Authorities were told by a witness that a third person was walking on the sidewalk in front of the building at the time of the crash and collapse.

The building is the former home of a bar and concert venue that closed two months ago.

"That could have been really bad because 10:30 is pretty busy at a bar at least," Neighboring store owner Roman Khachaturyan said.

Four people were injured, but not seriously, when the storefront of a grocery store in Vegas collapsed Friday morning.

According to the Associated Press, fire crews had to pull one victim from the debris around 6:20 a.m. local time at the La Bonita Supermarket.

Four people were transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

La Bonita sent the following statement:

At this point, we don’t know the cause of the incident and are working with the proper authorities in charge of the investigation of the awning collapse that injured four people early Friday morning. The people injured were transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Our Desert Inn location will remain closed until further notice and/or cleared by the proper authorities.

All employees will be given the day off fully paid and offered any medical or emotional support services if needed. Once they are ready, they will be relocated to another location until we can reopen the Desert Inn store.

At this moment we can only thank God that this happened so early in the morning and not during busier hours. As we get more information, we will update everyone via social media and our website. We would like to thank all the first responders who arrived quickly and helped the injured.

– Armando Martinez
La Bonita Supermarkets General Manager

According to the AP, no one else was injured and there was little damage to the front of the store.

WATCH RECAP:

At this time, it is not known what happened or how much the damage will cost.

The AP reported that the store was built in 1979.

Other shops did not appear to be damaged and county officials took over the investigation to check for structural strength.

Joyce Lupiani at KTNV first reported this story.

Firefighters in Surfside, Florida, have ended the recovery mission from the June collapse of a condo tower that killed nearly 100 people.

The conclusion of the mission comes one day ahead of the one-month anniversary of the collapse of Champlain Towers South. Ninety-seven people were killed when the tower spontaneously fell on the morning of June 24.

In a letter to Miami-Dade and Surfside officials, structural engineer Allyn Kilsheimer, who was hired to find out why the building collapsed, said the site might be unsafe due to a perimeter wall near Collins Avenue could fail, the Associated Press reported.

In the letter, Kilsheimer recommended that an earthen berm be built to support the walls because parts of the street could collapse.

According to the Miami Herald, Miami-Dade County officials said crews would be brought in to shore up the remaining underground walls.

Collins Avenue, which has been closed to traffic since June 24, could be reopening soon, the newspaper reported.

The announcement comes a day after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said in a hearing that victims and families who suffered losses in the collapse would be initially compensated a minimum of $150 million.

SURFSIDE, Fla. —

Video above: 911 calls released from moments after Surfside building collapsed

Search crews have been nearing the bottom of a pile of rubble left behind after a Surfside condo building collapsed nearly a month ago, according to officials. And as more families get answers, the community is grieving those lost.

"On the original collapse site, we are almost at the bottom," Miami-Dade Police spokesperson Alvaro Zabaleta told CNN last week. "Does that mean we are almost done with the search? No. Until we clear the entire site and find no more human remains we are not done."

Part of the Champlain Towers South collapsed in the early morning hours of June 24, as many of the residents slept. Immediately, crews were at the scene sifting through the rubble to search for the victims, pausing only for dangerous weather and when the remains of the building were demolished.

The death toll now stands at 97, and 95 of those have been identified.

Even after experts declared there was no longer hope of finding survivors, officials promised families the work would not let up until all the remains were recovered.

Now that the promise has been fulfilled for most families, the end of the search marks the beginning of a new phase of mourning.

In the days after the collapse, Debbie Hill's father was considered missing, and not knowing where he was and what happened to him was "the big issue," she told CNN.

Nicole Ortiz said the agony of waiting to learn the fate of her sister and nephew was indescribable.

"I screamed," she said. "I've almost fainted. I've cried."

But now, many families have answers.

They are mourning Vishal and Bhavna Patel and their 1-year-old daughter Aishani. Ilan Naibryf's family is saying goodbye to a young man they said made an impact everywhere he went. Sergio Lozano is coping with the loss of both of his parents, Antonio and Gladys.

"They died together," Lozano said. "It's not fair — being crushed, being destroyed. It's not fair."

And for those who survived, it's a matter of picking up the pieces after an almost-miraculous survival.

Iliana Monteagudo recalled the moment she saw the cracks running down her walls and the sound of the home she had dreamed of for 40 years crashing around her as she escaped through the stairs.

"Something inside of me said run," Monteagudo said. "You have to run to save your life."

An investigation to begin

As the community mourns, many in the area are also wrestling with fear for the future as they question what caused the collapse and if other buildings in the area are at risk.

Last week, a structural engineer hired by the city told CNN that the investigation will not reach its full force until search crews finished their work.

"Until they do their job, we can't go in to do samples of materials and take those samples and test them to understand what the various components of the building that came down was," Allyn Kilsheimer told CNN.

The first night that he was on the scene, Kilsheimer, who also investigated the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, said he had about 20 or 30 theories of possible triggers.

Since then, he eliminated some but added five or six more, he said, but won't be able to narrow it down while the search continues.

Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has acknowledged "multiple requests by engineers and attorneys" to gain access to the site.

"Engineers from the federal agency National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were deployed to Surfside with Congressional authority to gather evidence and determine how and why the Champlain South Tower collapsed. NIST is the fact-finding agency responsible for investigating building collapses such as the World Trade Center, much like the NTSB investigates plane crashes," Rundle said in a statement.

"It is my understanding that once NIST, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miami-Dade Police Departments determine that it is safe and appropriate for others to gain access to the site, they will be permitted to do so under guidelines set forth by those agencies," Rundle said.

In the years before a section of their high-rise suddenly pancaked to the ground, residents of Champlain Towers South were working to address defects identified in a periodic structural safety review, an unusual local requirement for all tall buildings that reach 40 years old.

“It’s very strict,” said Kit Miyamoto, CEO of Miyamoto International, a global structural engineering firm “This is the first thing I’ve seen like that.”  

The Newsy investigative team reviewed building codes in seven major U.S. cities and found the more common approach is to require checking structural integrity only when a tower is new.  

After that, city codes diverge.

New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco call for routine checkups only of tower exteriors, where pieces might fall off and hurt someone on the ground. 

Definitions of a high-rise vary, as do how often re-inspections should occur: every five years in Boston, up to every 12 years in Chicago. 

Seattle re-certifies towers only after damage from an event such as an earthquake.  

Houston requires inspections of apartment buildings every four years, but not condominiums unless someone makes a complaint.  

The cities are following guidance from the International Code Council. 

The group’s model building codes don’t say anything about whether high-rises should be re-inspected, only that they should be maintained and stay structurally sound.   

That may change soon. 

“We have to be more diligent in the future,” said Dominic Sims, the council’s CEO.

The group is planning to meet in August to discuss the collapse and to consider periodic building inspections.

The council also will review any findings from investigators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology who are on the ground in Surfside, Fla. 

“We’re going to want to hear from the experts,” Sims said, adding there is a “very strong likelihood” the council will adopt new guidelines for routine re-inspections of high-rises, at least for areas in the bullseye of climate change with sea-level rise and stronger storms. 

“The forces that are acting on buildings are changing,” he said.

There is concern that new recommendations to regularly examine high-rises in all cities would be an overreaction. 

“It’s not really the right way to spend resources,” Miyamoto said.

If towers are built to code and weather-tight, they should "last forever," he said.

Without mandated re-inspections, in a condo building, it’s often up to residents to detect trouble themselves and agree to pay for costly fixes. 

While investigators are still determining what brought down part of Champlain Towers, condo owners had been grappling with repairs that an engineer warned would be “extremely expensive.”  

Sims said people will expect tougher building codes following the tragedy in Surfside.

 

“Just the mere fact that it did fall, and in the U.S., that’s not something that I think the public will accept,” he said.

This story was originally published by Patrick Terpstra on Newsy.com.

The tragedy in Surfside is exposing voters to a different side of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for a reelection bid next year that could propel him into a presidential campaign.

He’s still the conservative populist who rarely parts with Donald Trump. But unlike the former president, DeSantis is showing he can tone down some of his most extreme partisan rhetoric during a disaster.

In the two weeks since the condo collapse, DeSantis has stood somberly with local officials, including Democrats, as they assessed the damage.

He nodded in agreement when President Joe Biden visited, and he skipped a rally headlined by Trump.

Trump's endorsement was vital to DeSantis winning the race for governor in 2018. But after a condo collapse that has killed at least 64 people, his work across the aisle with local officials has won him praise from leaders on the ground.

“The governor has been decisive. He’s been constant. He’s been collaborative,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava, a Democrat who has sparred with DeSantis in the past, said in an interview with the Associated Press. “Hats off to the governor for how he has supported us in this crisis.”

Since assuming the role of governor in 2018, DeSantis has largely shaped his legacy in the mold of Trump. In recent months, he's signed legislation that increases punishments for protesters, particularly those who topple monuments. He also recently signed a bill that prohibits trans-female athletes from participating in women's or girl's sports in high school or college.

Rescuers at the site of a collapsed apartment tower in Surfside, Florida, found 10 additional victims in the rubble overnight, bringing the death toll from the tragedy to 46.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed that 94 people who are presumed to have been in the building at the time of the collapse are still missing. Two hundred people have been accounted for.

It's been nearly two weeks since the Champlain Towers South spontaneously collapsed on the morning of June 24. Since that morning, rescuers have not found any survivors in the wreckage.

During a Wednesday morning briefing, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said there is no evidence to indicate that any of the victims recovered so far survived the initial collapse.

Levine Cava said Tuesday that the families of those still missing are preparing for the worst.

"They know what is happening," she said. "They understand that the news of their loved ones may be tragic loss...they're prepared for it. Everybody will be ready when it's time to move to the next phase."

Officials say 32 of the 46 people killed in the accident have been identified. Thirty-one names of victims have been made public. They are:

• Hilda Noriega, 92
• Gino Cattarossi, 89
• Graciela Cattarossi, 86
• Claudio Bonnefoy, 85
• Antonio Lozano, 83
• Gonzalo Torre, 81
• Magaly Elena Delgado, 80
• Leon Oliwkowicz, 80
• Simon Segal, 89
• Gladys Lozano, 79
• Nancy Kress Levin, 76
• Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74
• Maria Obias-Bonnefoy, 69
• Tzvi Ainsworth, 68
• Francis Fernandez, 67
• Ingrid Ainsworth, 66
• David Epstein, 58
• Bonnie Epstein, 56
• Frank Kleiman, 55
• Staci Dawn Fang, 54
• Manuel LaFont, 54
• Marcus Joseph Guara, 52
• Jay Kleiman, 52
• Michael David Altman, 50
• Graciela Cattarossi, 48
• Anna Ortiz, 46
• Anaely Rodriguez, 42
• Luis Bermudez, 26
• Andreas Giannitsopoulous, 21
• Lucia Guara, 10
• Emma Guara, 4

Officials have also confirmed that the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter was also among those killed in the collapse. That girl's name has not been made public at the request of the family.

Search-and-rescue efforts at the site have continued unimpeded since Tropical Storm Elsa moved out of the area. Cominsky said Wednesday that there were no work stoppages reported overnight.

"Our first responders have searched that pile every day since the collapse like they were searching for their own children," Levine Cava said.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said Wednesday that city officials were conducting tests on Champlain Towers North — the sister building of the tower that collapsed. That building had similar blueprints and was constructed during the same time period with similar materials.

Burkett said that analysts would review results from today's tests over the next several weeks to determine the building's structural soundness. While the north tower has not been evacuated, residents have been given alternative housing options if they no longer feel safe.

Levine Cava added Wednesday that an audit of 40 similar buildings in the county has only found one building with structural issues — a building in North Miami Beach that had issues with four balconies. That building has not been evacuated, and work is ongoing to fix those balconies.

An additional building in Miami Beach was evacuated last week.

Officials in Surfside will brief the media again 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

About a block from the Miami-area beachfront condominium tower that collapsed sits its sister building, Champlain Towers North.

It was erected in 1982 — a year after the now-partially collapsed Champlain Towers South — built by the same company, using the same materials and a similar design.

It has faced the same tides and salty air.

Last Thursday's collapse has made some residents of Champlain Towers North worried enough to leave, though most have remained. They say they are confident their almost 40-year-old, 12-story building is better maintained.

They say their building doesn't have the same problems with cracking in support beams and in the pool area that 2018 engineering reports show the south tower had.

"I've never seen any major structural issues" in the north building, said Philip Zyne, an attorney. "I'm not worried at all right now. I do want to get a full structural engineering and forensic examination done."

However, some residents aren't taking any chances, like Rebecca Weinstock, who bought a sixth-floor apartment four years ago. She's currently in New York, where she plans to stay.

"I am out my investment, I am out my apartment, I am out my future, but we are talking about lives here," she told the Associated Press.

She added she'll only return to the building if two independent engineers from outside the region determine it's safe to return.

SURFSIDE, Fla. (WPTV) -- The first lawsuit has been filed in connection with the deadly collapse this week at a South Florida condominium.

The suit was filed late Thursday night, less than 24 hours after the Champlain Towers building partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida, killing at least four people.

It was filed on behalf of Manuel Drezner and attorney Brad Sohn of The Brad Sohn Law Firm for the victims involved in the tragedy.

The class-action lawsuit against the building association seeks to compensate the victims and says the defendant failed to "safeguard the lives and property" of residents.

The suit goes on to say that the association failed to "properly protect the lives and property" of the plaintiffs.

"According to public statements made by Defendant’s attorney Ken Direktor, 'repair needs had been identified' with regard to certain structural issues but had not been implemented; one of the most breathtakingly frightening tragedies in the history of South Florida followed," the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs in the case are seeking restitution, recovery of damages and the cost of attorney fees following the tragedy.

They are seeking to recover $5 million for the victims, according to the lawsuit.

Sohn said he has been contacted by numerous victims who said they did have concerns over the structural integrity of the building prior to the partial collapse.

The attorney said the goal of the lawsuit is to try to make the victims whole again as soon as possible and to start holding those accountable so that evidence may be preserved.

Direktor, the attorney representing the Champlain Towers South Association, rejected the lawsuit.

"I don't know what caused this building to fall down, you don't know what caused this building to fall down, government officials do not know what caused this building to fall down, the engineers don't know what caused this building to fall down," Direktor said. "Please, explain to me how this lawyer knows what caused this building to fall down."

MORE: How to help those impacted by the Surfside condo collapse

More than 150 people are still unaccounted for as first responders continue to sift through the rubble looking for survivors.

The building was constructed in 1981 and set to undergo a 40-year recertification process, which is mandated by code enforcement in Miami-Dade County.

This story originally reported by Michelle Quesada and Scott Sutton on WPTV.com.