Originally published at: Rest of Champlain Towers demolished to aid rescuers | Boing Boing
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I just want to say that there is still the possibility that people are alive in there and could be saved.
When a department store collapsed in Seoul in 1995, killing 502 people, the last survivor was rescued 17 days later.
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Yep. But there is a storm coming and a controlled collapse is still safer than an uncontrolled one in the middle of a flood and storm. They might have killed some people to save more, or maybe even to stop them from drowning.
Still we all should be very, very glad it was not us making this call.
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It’s possible, but since the part of the building (it was a whole different wing) that they demolished was still standing, I think we can rest assured that that’s pretty unlikely.
ETA: Just to clarify, my original post was not intended to say that they shouldn’t have demolished the remainder of the building. I just wanted to say that there’s still room for hope, and that’s true with or without the demolition.
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Yeah I remember in earth quakes and such, people were found in lucky pockets of debris and lived a longer time than you would guess possible.
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The last survivors in that disaster relied on rainwater leaking in to prevent death by dehydration. Has there been any rain or other water sources that might provide hydration for anyone trapped deep in this debris?
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Now that I honestly do not know…
There is a storm coming now, but I do not know what the weather has been like up until now. Even a little rain or a broken water main could go a long way if it formed a puddle.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up sky high, but I do believe that there is a possibility that a handful of people could still be alive in there. You never know.
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Im amazed they were doing search-and-rescue there at all prior to that controlled demoltion.
And, if you are demolition company, you must be getting super-duper hazard pay. I wonder what the issues are when demolishing an inherently unstable structure. (You almost certainly cannot be placing the demo charges by remote control.)
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The firefighters did spray a considerable amount on while fighting the fire that broke out somewhere within the rubble; but it’s not clear that that situation is a net positive for survival odds of anyone trapped inside.
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I read that the portion of the building that was still standing contained pets of people who left them behind when they quickly evacuated. Several dogs, cats and birds. I understand that it wasn’t possible to safely retrieve them but I couldn’t imagine leaving my dog behind in the event of an evacuation. There may have been circumstances here where the owners were elderly and unable to manage it, but the thought of it makes me sad.
Residents evacuated after the collapse feared the demolition might kill petsstill missing, though Miami Dade Fire Rescue said they had conducted a thorough sweep of the building using thermal-imaging cameras and did not find any.
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It might be possible, but I would not bet on there being any more survivors. 
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It’s possible that there are people underneath a main rubble pile. By demolishing the remainder-- which had already been evacuated, they could control where the rubber would fall. If they had left it standing, it could have fallen onto the main rubble pile, killing any remaining survivors and possibly the rescue crews.
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