the story of the rescue from the rubble of the son of the first identified victim

Stacie Fang, 54, was identified on Friday as one of the victims of the tragic building collapse in Miami. This is the mother of the 15-year-old boy who, moments after the collapse of the Champlain South Tower, was rescued from the rubble by the firefighters, thanks to the help of a passing man.

“There are no words to describe her tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang-Handler family would like to express our deepest gratitude for the great amount of sympathy, compassion and support we have received, ”the family said in a statement.

Fang is the first officially identified death after the tragedy. So far, authorities have indicated that there were at least four dead and 159 missing.

Jonah Handler, Fang’s son, is 15 and a baseball player at Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami Gardens. According to Miami Local 10, is admitted to a hospital.

Handler managed to be saved from the rubble mountain of the building thanks to the intervention of Nicholas Balboa, a man who came to visit his father and he was walking his dog when part of the complex collapsed within 12 seconds and he heard screams for help.

“As I got closer, I could hear someone making noise and screaming. I started to get closer to the building and I climbed over the rubble, and I could hear him say he was there, and I could see his arm sticking out of the rubble and waving his hand, “Nicholas Balboa, who lives in Phoenix, told CNBC.

“He was just saying: ‘Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me’. I told him we weren’t going to leave him, “Balboa said.” It was me and someone else. So there we were and felt like we could reach it. It didn’t feel good to leave him, especially hearing that his voice was so young. “

Four dead and 159 missing

Miami-Dade County Medical Department Director Dr Emma Lew said she managed to identify three of the four who died, although she did not detail their names, according to CNN.

One of the people was alive when he was transferred to a hospital Thursday morning, but then passed away, he picked up the medium.

According to the doctor cited by CNN, ask families to give details of their missing loved ones, from signature marks, tattoos, dental care and scars.

Lew explained that identifying bodies can be difficult depending on the degree of decomposition and exposure to various elements.

At a press conference this afternoon, attended by State Governor Ron Desantis and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava, it was reported that the numbers remained at four dead, 159 missing and 120 people safe.

The building, with 12 floors and 136 apartments and located on the seafront, was inaugurated in 1981 and has just passed a compulsory inspection for its 40th anniversary.

A total of 55 apartments in the building collapsed while people were sleeping.

At the family reunification center which operates a few blocks from the Champlain Towers, they begin to take DNA samples from people with missing relatives to facilitate identification when bodies are found in the rubble, the channel reported. NBC TV 6.

With information from agencies.

LM