MDFR Identifies “Voice In The Rubble” Victim

SURFSIDE (CBSMiami) – Who was the voice within the rubble?

That query has been one of many heartbreaking mysteries of the Surfside constructing collapse.

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A evaluation by Miami Dade Fireplace Rescue has concluded that it was Theresa Velasquez, a 36-year-old leisure business government from Los Angeles who was visiting her mother and father on the Champlain Towers South on the night time of the collapse, in response to a memo obtained by CBS Miami.

Her mother and father – Julio, 67, and Angela, 60 – additionally died.

Theresa Velasquez’s brother, David, mentioned he accepts the findings of the fireplace division investigation. “There is no such thing as a solution to know 100%,” he advised CBS Miami, “however it looks like the logical conclusion.”

In line with the 11-page memo, written by Miami Dade Deputy Fireplace Chief Ray Jadallah, Velasquez did survive the preliminary collapse, however rescue crews had been unable to succeed in her earlier than she died.

Within the memo, dated April 25, and despatched to Fireplace Chief Alan Cominsky, Jadallah notes his findings had been primarily based on greater than two months of interviews with the crews who labored to extricate Velasquez.

The report makes an attempt to refute the findings of a USA At this time investigation revealed in December which recognized the voice within the rubble as 14-year-old Valeria Barth. The report additionally rebuts allegations that the actions of the rescue crews brought on Valeria to burn to loss of life when firefighters by accident set hearth to the room the place {the teenager} was trapped.

There have been questions from the outset of the collapse about whether or not somebody was heard alive within the rubble. Jadallah and others initially denied a voice was heard. Later the division acknowledged there was a voice within the preliminary hours behind a thick concrete slab that had crashed into the underground parking storage.

These working within the underground storage all agreed the voice was feminine.

Some firefighters believed the voice mentioned she was in Unit 204. That was the unit the place Valeria was staying together with her mother and father, Luis Fernando Barth and Catalina Gomez. They’d travelled collectively to Miami from Colombia a month earlier than the collapse.

Different firefighters mentioned the voice mentioned she was in Unit 304, which is owned by Theresa Velasquez’s mother and father.

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The report notes: “…it was difficult listening to the girl.”

“One rescuer acknowledged that once they requested the sufferer if she was with another person, the feminine voice responded she was visiting her mother and father (paraphrased),” the report states. “This assertion correlates with the accounts from Theresa Velasquez’s household stating that Ms. Velasquez was visiting her mother and father from California and was staying with them in residence #304. In contrast to Ms. Barth, who was accompanied by her mother and father visiting from Colombia and had been occupying residence #204.”

“In line with rescuers, the voice was that of a grown girl whose English gave the impression to be that of an English speaker with native sentence syntax and wonderful vocabulary,” the report continues. “All of the rescuers unanimously acknowledged …[the voice] didn’t have an accent.”

The report notes Valeria’s uncle mentioned the teenager’s major language was Spanish “however she will communicate English” and does have a definite Spanish accent.

In line with the report, Valeria’s uncle, Jadallah and others he didn’t imagine the voice was his niece.

CBS Miami was not in a position to attain both the uncle or Valeria’s grandmother.

Theresa Velasquez’s physique was unearthed on July 8. It was roughly 15 ft from the help poles they’d erected whereas they had been making an attempt the extricate the trapped girl. Nonetheless, the report doesn’t say if Valeria’s physique was additionally present in that space.

The report spends an excessive amount of time making an attempt to refute accusations the division didn’t have the required gear to rescue the trapped girl. And disputes the allegation that the firefighters by accident sparked the underground fires that brought on rescue efforts for the trapped girl to be halted for a number of hours. After they returned, they may now not hear the girl’s voice.

The report paperwork the extraordinarily hazardous circumstances rescue crews had been working below to attempt to save the girl – together with excessive readings of carbon monoxide, hip-deep water polluted with hazardous supplies, electrical shock and the fixed threat of additional collapse.

Theresa Velasquez’s brother, David, mentioned Jadallah and different officers have spoken to him typically within the months for the reason that collapse.

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“I belief what’s in that report and the those that made that willpower,” he advised CBS Miami.