Building officials of Miami-Dade County suspect deferred maintenance rather than weak building codes or an inadequate 40-year recertification process required by the county was the likely reason for the June 24 building failure in Surfside, Fla. The partial collapse of the 40-year-old Champlain Towers South residential condominium caused at least 98 fatalities.
The collapse of the 12-story condo is a tragic case that is “blowing everything out of proportion,” says Fredy Tain, structural division director in the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER) of Miami-Dade County.