FLORIDA INSPECTOR ASSURED CONDO RESIDENTS BUILDING WAS FINE DESPITE WARNING

A town inspector reassured residents in 2018 that the building that collapsed near Miami last week was in "very good shape," Gabriella Borter reported for Reuters.

Reports from National Public Radio (NPR), the Associated Press (AP) and CNN noted that the reassurance was made just a month after an engineer warned that the high-rise had suffered major structural damage that required immediate repair.

The 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside partially collapsed early on Thursday as residents slept, killing at least nine and leaving more than 150 people still missing. Rescue crews are working around the clock, sifting through the rubble for signs of life even as hopes of finding more survivors grow dimmer by the hour.

The 2018 report prepared by an engineering firm for the condominium building found serious concrete deterioration in the underground parking garage as well as major structural damage in the concrete slab beneath the pool deck.

The engineer, Frank Morabito, reported the deterioration would "expand exponentially" if it was not repaired in the near future.

But Ross Prieto, a Surfside inspector who had reviewed the report, met residents the following month and assured them the building was safe, according to minutes of the meeting first obtained by NPR.

Prieto is no longer employed by Surfside, according to NPR. Reuters was unable to reach him but he told the Miami Herald newspaper he did not remember getting the report. In an email to the town manager the morning after the 2018 meeting, Prieto said it had gone "very well" and that the response from residents was "positive."

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation. Gregg Schlesinger, a lawyer and former general contractor who specializes in construction failure cases, said it was clear the deficiencies identified in the 2018 report were the main cause of the disaster.

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