“I feel like in a dream”: The man who did not return to his apartment and was saved from dying in the collapse of Miami building

Erick De Moura, 30, was saved from being another victim of the tragedy in Miami after deciding with his girlfriend to not to go to his apartment on the tenth floor of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, which collapsed at dawn last Thursday.

Erick De Moura had just gone to his girlfriend’s house, Fernanda Figuereido, on June 23 to watch the Copa América match between Brazil and Colombia with friends. This situation was very unusual for being a weekday.

Everyone present in the home of Fernanda Figuereido decided to play soccer in the yard after watching the game. This episode was to be a turning point on that fateful night.

Erick De Moura, who had to jump into the water of a canal to retrieve the ball that had fallen during the moment of distraction, was completely drenched. It is because of that Fernanda suggested him to stay and put his clothes in the dryer. This saved his life.

After going to sleep with his girlfriend, he got up at dawn to go to the bathroom and ended up hearing the news through his mobile device.

“My gosh are you alive”, Rochelle, a building surveillance supervisor, told him on a call. “How so am I alive?” De Moura replied, still a little sleepy. “The building collapsed“, she replied.

It is at that moment that De Moura woke up Fernanda to tell her the news. They both are still in shock from what happened and cannot believe it.

“I feel like in a dream. I feel like I’m in a movie. I’m in a horrible movie”, Erick De Moura specified.

None of the neighbors who lived above or below the apartment of De Moura have been found alive by rescuers to date.

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Search and rescue operations were extended to their sixth day Tuesday at the site where a building complex in Florida partially collapsed, leaving at least 11 people dead and 150 others.

Experts have pointed out that the investigation will be long and complex and that it will probably conclude that it was not a single cause, but a set of factors that influenced the collapse.

In 2018 a report from an engineering firm determined that there was structural damage “important” and cracks in different parts of the building, but previously it had been detected that the ground was sinking in that area of surfiside, a small city located on a sleeve of land that is interposed between the ocean and the city of Miami and in which is also the Miami Beach.