*UPDATE* May I have a word about the Surfside Building Collapse

[Demovictory9]

21. 'Once A Failure Occurs, Gravity Takes Over And Increases Load': Engineer Paul Danforth Gives Insight

‘Once A Failure Occurs, Gravity Takes Over And Increases Load’: Engineer Paul Danforth Gives Insight Into The Condo Collapse In Surfside

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/06/24/miami-dade-condo-collapse-paul-danforth-engineering/

MIAMI (CBSMiami)- The partial collapse of the Chaplain Towers South condo building in Surfside early Thursday morning has left plenty of questions as to what caused the collapse that has left at least one person dead and 51 occupants unaccounted for. The building was erected prior to Hurricane Andrew and seemed to have no structural failure from that storm, so the process of finding out what went wrong could take awhile.

“Obviously, something happened, the building has been there for 40 years, it’s been through Hurricane Andrew without any major structural failure. Something happened here and it’s going to take a lot of forensic investigation to identify what caused it,” Paul Danforth, Senior Engineer and Vice President of Corporate at Universal Engineering told CBS 4 this morning.

Danforth explained that there is always consideration when designing a building given to potential safeguards against a failure like the one seen at Chaplain Towers. But, once a failure happens, gravity is in control.

“The failure in this case could have happened on the ground level, it could have happened on the roof level. Once a failure occurs, and gravity takes over, it just continues to increase load as the failure continues to evolve,” Danforth said.