Giulia Heyward, Christina Morales and
Search and rescue workers at the site of the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Fla., found one body and other human remains on Saturday evening, bringing the confirmed death toll to five, with 156 people still unaccounted for, according to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami-Dade County.
Late Saturday night, the Miami-Dade Police Department identified three of the victims as Antonio Lozano, 83, and Gladys Lozano, 79, of Apartment 903; and Manuel LaFont of Apartment 804.
Mr. LaFont was a businessman who worked with Latin American companies and the father of a 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, according to his ex-wife, Adriana LaFont.
Ms. LaFont described him as a loving and devoted father who had a passion for baseball — one he had inherited from his Cuban parents. Mr. LaFont had played the sport when he was young and coached his son’s team, never missing a practice or a game.
“He’s the best dad,” Ms. LaFont said. “He’s the most genuine person I ever met.”
Their children were with Ms. LaFont when the building collapsed.
In an Instagram post Saturday evening, Phil Ferro, the chief meteorologist on WSVN Channel 7, confirmed that Ms. Lozano, his godmother, and Mr. Lozano, his uncle, had died in the collapse. For days, Mr. Ferro had been reporting on weather conditions affecting the search and rescue operation.
“They were such beautiful people,” he wrote. “May they rest in peace.”
Officials had previously identified a fourth victim, Stacie Fang. She was pulled from the wreckage on Thursday and was pronounced dead at the Aventura Hospital and Medical Center. Her 15-year-old son, Jonah Handler, had been pulled alive from the rubble earlier that same day. A video of him being rescued from the rubble spread widely after the building collapse.
The announcement that another body had been found Saturday evening was the most significant development at the search site in more than a day. On Saturday morning, Ms. Levine Cava told reporters at a news conference that no further victims had been found Friday night or early Saturday.
Ms. Levine Cava confirmed that family members of those missing had already been swabbed for DNA samples in order to help identify human remains as they are found.
Erika Benitez, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Fire Department, said Saturday morning that it had been a while since rescue workers had heard sounds that they believed could be indicators of people still alive beneath the rubble. But she said that the search and rescue team believed that finding survivors remained a possibility.
Ms. Levine Cava said on Saturday evening that the smoke at the building site had dissipated since morning.
“Our top priority continues to be search and rescue and saving any lives that we can,” Ms. Levine Cava said.
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