SURFSIDE, Fla. — As search and rescue efforts continue after a 12-story condo collapsed in Surfside, people living in the tower's sister building wonder if they should be concerned.
Champlain Towers North sits at 8877 Collins Avenue, just about 100 yards from the rubble that remains of the south tower.
And Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett called it "basically the identical building in almost every way to the one that collapsed," per USA Today. "Built by the same contractor, around the same time, with the same central plans and probably with the same materials."
Burkett says he's working on a plan to temporarily relocate those living in Champlain Towers North, but said Saturday he was not prepared to order everyone in the building to evacuate.
However, AP reports that when asked what he would do if he lived in the collapsed building's sister tower, Burkett said, "I'd be gone."
The mayor sought an emergency inspection of Champlain Towers North, as both were built in 1981 north of downtown Miami. He said later Saturday that a city official has since led a cursory review of that and another nearby building and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
Burkett did say that if those living in the north tower wanted to evacuate, there would be resources available for them, according to the Palm Beach Post.
"There's no reason for this building to go down like that. Unless someone literally pulls out the supports from underneath, or it gets washed out, or there's a sinkhole or something like that," the mayor said of the collapse on Thursday.
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