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Brooklyn Man And Wife Missing In Deadly Miami-Area Tower Collapse
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jun 26, 2021
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Miami-Dade Fire Rescue / Twitter
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jun 26, 2021
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A Brooklyn man and his wife who recently moved to an apartment in the Miami-area condo tower that collapsed Thursday remain missing, according to news reports.
Ruslan Manashirov, who News 12 reported grew up in Bergen Beach, and his wife Nicole Doran married in May and were living on the 7th floor of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, according to the New York Times.
The 13-story oceanfront tower outside Miami partially collapsed Thursday, with four people confirmed dead and more than 150 people remaining missing. While the cause of the collapse is still under investigation, on Friday officials released a 2018 structural report that shows evidence of cracks and damage in the building, with an engineer warning there was "major structural damage" to "the concrete slab below the pool deck and 'abundant' cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage," according to the New York Times.
Doran is a nurse originally from Pittsburgh and Manashirov is a general practitioner, the Times said. The couple moved to the building two months ago, according to WPLG. Friends told the station that Manashirov did not show up to work on Thursday and did not respond to phone calls or texts.
Manashirov’s sister Valery said she watched the television footage of the collapsed building in horror. “I just couldn't believe it, and it just felt like a bad dream,” she told ABC-7. Her parents have driven to Florida to await further news, she said.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, told reporters Saturday that there was an active fire beneath the rubble of the building that’s slowing down rescue efforts.
“It's a very deep fire. It's extremely difficult to locate the source of the fire. So, they've been working around the clock, these fire rescue teams, these brave men and women, under the rubble to fix this problem so they can get on, but it is hampering our search efforts," Cava said during a news conference.
One New Jersey family vacationing in the Champlain Towers said they narrowly escaped. The Agueros of West New York, N.J. were staying at their family’s condo in the tower and woke up to a loud sound.
Albert Aguero told Good Morning America when he opened the front door, "I looked to the left and the apartment to our left was half sheared off. I looked forward, which is where the elevator shaft is, and it was just a hole," he said.
At that point, we knew it was a race against time because I didn't know if the rest of the building was coming [down]."
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brooklyn
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miami
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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