Surfside condominium collapse

Surfside condominium collapse
View of Champlain Towers South site, the morning of the collapse
DateJune 24, 2021 (2021-06-24)
TimeApproximately 1:22 a.m. EDT (UTC−4)
Location
Coordinates25°52′23″N 80°07′15″W / 25.87306°N 80.12083°W / 25.87306; -80.12083
CauseSee § Possible causes
Deaths98
Non-fatal injuries11
Property damage$1 billion
LitigationJudge approves $1.02 billion settlement for victims of Surfside condo collapse

On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m. EDT, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, United States, partially collapsed, causing the deaths of 98 people. Four people were rescued from the rubble, but one of them died of injuries shortly after arriving at the hospital. Eleven others were injured. Approximately 35 were rescued the same day from the un-collapsed portion of the building, which was demolished ten days later.

A contributing factor under investigation is long-term degradation of reinforced concrete structural support in the basement-level parking garage under the pool deck, due to water penetration and corrosion of the reinforcing steel. The problems had been reported in 2018 and noted as "much worse" in April 2021. A $15 million program of remedial works had been approved before the collapse, but the main structural work had not started. Other possible factors include land subsidence, insufficient reinforcing steel, and corruption during construction. As of June 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is investigating almost two dozen potential causes for the collapse, at which time it considered that it may well determine several factors happened simultaneously to cause the collapse.

The Champlain Towers South collapse ties with the Knickerbocker Theatre collapse as the third-deadliest non-deliberate structural engineering failure in United States history. The deadliest is the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse and the second deadliest is the collapse of the Pemberton Mill.