Town of Surfside
- Newly released police body-camera footage shows the chaotic moments after the Surfside condo collapsed.
- A massive wing of Florida's oceanfront Champlain Towers South came crashing down on June 24.
- At least 98 people have been confirmed dead in the tragedy.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Newly released police body-camera footage shows scenes of horror, chaos and utter confusion in the immediate aftermath of the deadly Florida condo collapse.
Three separate, roughly 18 minute videos provided to Insider by the town of Surfside Wednesday shows the moments the first officers arrived on scene after a massive wing of the oceanfront Champlain Towers South came crashing down on June 24 at around 1:20 a.m.
Surfside Officer Ariol Lage's body-worn camera started filming at about 1:24 a.m.- just minutes after the collapse, according to the Miami Herald, which first reported on the footage.
In one video, Lage can be seen exiting his patrol car amid a cloud of thick dust and debris as he made his way over to the scene of the disaster.
"What's going on? I can't see anything," the officer can be heard saying. "Are you guys OK? Is there anybody with injuries?"
The cop then heads into the parking garage area where the collapsed building could be seen.
"Hello? Where are you?" the officer asks as a woman is heard saying, "Please help me," according to the video footage.
"Are you OK?" Lage asked, prompting the woman to shout, "No!"
"Is anybody down there injured," the officer questioned, and the woman responded, "Yes...an old lady."
Town of Surfside
The cop then ran over to the other side of the building as voices screaming could be heard.
Later in the footage, officers can be seen frantically trying to clear the perimeter around the collapsed Collins Avenue building.
"Guys, that way, now, c'mon we don't know if this is going to fall this way," an officer says.
As cops looked on at the disaster site, one could be heard saying, "Dude, this is f---ed," as another one adds, "I've never seen anything like this, bro."
In another video, an out-of-breath man who said he just came from the 12th-floor penthouse of the building approaches another cop, identified by the Herald as Surfside Officer Kemuel Gambirazio.
"I'm on my phone on YouTube and I hear something like fall, not a big deal," the heavily-panting man recounted.
"All of a sudden, I hear like it's a f---ing jet right through the front of my balcony. So I got up and I'm like, 'Was that a f---ing plane,' because there's planes that come by here," he told the officer.
Town of Surfside
Another cop interjects, saying, "Half of the back [of the building] is gone."
"The building's an L," the resident told the cops. "The whole f---ing thing came down."
The collapse of the Champlain Towers South was one of the deadliest structural building failures in US history.
Emergency search crews sifted through the massive pile of rubble and concrete in the aftermath of the disaster looking for possible survivors for two weeks.
At least 98 people have been confirmed dead in the tragedy.