Surfside condo collapse

Local Search and Rescue Teams Leave Surfside After Month at Condo Collapse Site

The teams have been searching the site since the building partially collapsed on June 24, killing at least 97 people

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Local search and rescue teams that spent a month deployed at the Surfside condo collapse site departed Friday.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Urban Search and Rescue Team, Florida Task Force One, and City of Miami Fire Department's Florida Task Force 2 left the Champlain Towers South Collapse Site.

“It’s extremely difficult, it just consumes you every day that you’re there, you just can’t help but think about your daughter, and all your other loved ones, too, but it’s difficult with kids," Task Force 2 member Nicole Notte said.

The teams took part in a procession that left the site around noon to return to their headquarters.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky welcomed the Urban Search and Rescue Team back.

"To each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart, you have shown the world what superheroes look like," Levine Cava said. "Every day, your tenacity, your passion, your dedication, your refusal to give up kept the hope of those families alive, helped them know that we would do anything, I mean you would do anything."

The teams have been searching the site since the building partially collapsed on June 24, killing at least 97 people.

“Providing closure to families was the ultimate test of everybody here and I think we did our best to do that, make sure that everyone knew that we were in it 1,000 percent," said task Force 2 Leader Asst. Chief Scott Dean.

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