Remembering the dead and missing in Florida condo collapse
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) - Authorities have identified four of the five people whose bodies were found after the terrifying collapse of a 12-story beachfront condominium in Surfside, just north of Miami Beach. More than 150 others are missing as rescuers painstakingly search through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South. The Associated Press has been reporting brief descriptions of the victims.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said the dead include Stacie Dawn Fang, Manuel LaFont and Antonio and Gladys Lozano.
STACIE DAWN FANG
Stacie Dawn Fang, 54, was with her son Jonah Handler, a teenager, when the building collapsed. They lived on the tenth floor. The boy´s small hand waved through the wreckage as a man out walking his dog hurried to the site, climbed through a pile of glass and rebar and promised to get help right away.
Rescuers helped the boy out from under a pile of cement and carried him away on a stretcher to a hospital.
"There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie," members of her family said in a statement. "Many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much needed source of strength during this devastating time."
Photos of missing people are posted on a fence near the site of the Champlain Towers South Condo after the building collapsed Friday, June 25, 2021 in Surfside, Fla. The apartment building partially collapsed on Thursday, June 24. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP)
Asked about the boy´s condition, a family friend, Lisa Mozloom told the AP "He will be fine. He´s a miracle."
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MANUEL LAFONT
Manuel LaFont, 54, was a proud father, a baseball fan and a business consultant who lived on the building's eighth floor. He had a 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter with his ex-wife Adriana LaFont, the Miami Herald reported.
Adriana asked her friends on Facebook to pray the rosary for Manny before his body was found. "So many memories inside the walls that are no more today, forever engraved experiences in the heart," she wrote.
LaFont, a Houston native, coached his son´s baseball team, the Astros, at North Shore Park, just a mile away from the Champlain. He was a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Miami Beach. The parish´s school parents gathered Saturday afternoon to pray for LaFont and his neighbors who were still missing.
An alumnus of Sharpstown High School in Houston, LaFont had worked across Latin America and the Caribbean for a manufacturing firm, leading a division focusing on roadway safety that built crash cushions and moveable barriers, the Herald reported.
"I got into this industry specifically because I don´t want to sell widgets. I want to help people. I want to do something good in this world," he said at an industry conference in 2016. "When I die, I want to say that my life meant something."
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ANTONIO AND GLADYS LOZANO
Antonio and Gladys Lozano lived on the ninth floor. The two had known each other over 60 years and would have celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary on July 21.
Their sons told WPLG-TV that the couple had joked neither wanted to die before the other, because neither wanted to live without the other. Their one solace, the brothers said, was that they were together when they died.
Authorities confirmed on Saturday that Antonio, 83, and Gladys, 79, were among the dead.
Sergio Lozano said he had dinner with his parents hours before the collapse. He lived in one of the towers of the complex and could see his parents´ apartment across the way from his. That night, he said the heard a loud noise they thought could be a storm.
"The building is not there," he said he told his wife. "My parents´ apartment is not there. It´s gone."
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Leo Soto, who created this memorial with grocery stores donating flowers and candles, pauses in front of photos of some of the missing people that he put on a fence, near the site of an oceanfront condo building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Fla., Friday, June 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Angelica Pulido looks at a makeshift memorial with photos of some of the missing people near the site of an oceanfront condo building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Fla., Friday, June 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
CORRECTS SOURCE TO MICHELLE GUERRA - This undated photo provided by Michelle Guerra shows Oresme Gil Guerra and wife Betty Guerra. More than 150 people remained unaccounted for as rescuers continued to dig through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., on Saturday, June 26, 2021. Family members have reported the couple missing after the building collapse on Thursday. (Michelle Guerra via AP)
The Mayor of Surfside Charles Burkett, left, talks with Rachel Spiegel, right, who is looking for information on the Champlain Towers South Condo building, Saturday, June 26, 2021, in the Surfside area of Miami. The apartment building partially collapsed on Thursday. Spiegel's mother Judy lives in the building and is missing. Also shown are Spiegel's brothers Josh Spiegel, second from left, and Michael Spiegel, second from right, and her father Kevin Spiegel. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
People pray, late Saturday, June 26, 2021, during a prayer vigil for the victims and families of the Champlain Towers collapsed building in Surfside, Fla., at the nearby St. Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Fla. Many people were still unaccounted for two days after Thursday's fatal collapse. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
South Florida Urban Search and Rescue team look for survivors at the 12-story oceanfront condo, Champlain Towers South on Saturday, June 26, 2021, that partially collapsed early Thursday morning in the Surfside area of Miami. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP)
A young woman holds a rosary as she prays, late Saturday, June 26, 2021, during a prayer vigil for the victims and families of the Champlain Towers collapsed building in Surfside, Fla., at the nearby St. Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Fla. Many people were still unaccounted for two days after Thursday's fatal collapse. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
