- The Surfside condo fire alarms didn't sound before the building fell earlier this year, the Miami Herald reported.
- The paper interviewed workers and residents, and reviewed audio and video footage.
- "That system worked as it was designed," the president of the alarm system told Insider.
The Surfside condo's fire alarms didn't go off before the building collapsed earlier this year, and if they did, residents would have had seven minutes to escape, a new investigation has found.
At 1:15 a.m. on June 24 — seven minutes before Champlain Towers South crumbled and left 98 people dead — the pool deck at the Florida oceanfront tower collapsed and the building's alarm system sent a distress signal to the fire alarm company, the Miami Herald reported on Monday.
But through interviews with workers and residents, and a review of audio and video footage, the Miami Herald reported that no sirens or warnings went off in the condo units during that seven-minute span before the condo collapsed.
It's not immediately clear what could have gone wrong.
The system was installed by Premier Fire Alarms and Integration Systems in 2017, replacing an outdated system that failed an inspection, the Herald reported.
"That system worked as it was designed," Matthew Haiman, president of Premier, told Insider on Monday, adding that system was "approved by Miami-Dade Fire Department."
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Monday, but a spokeswoman told the Herald that the department was unsure if the alarms sounded before the collapse.
"If [the alarms] went off and people followed the directions, that could have been crucial," William Bryson, a former fire chief for the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County, told the Herald.
While it's unknown what went wrong, the system could have endured a "malfunction or failure of some kind" during the collapse of the pool deck, Gary Rainey, a retired Miami-Dade Fire Rescue lieutenant, told the Herald.
Two unit owners told the Herald that they did not hear any alarms, while two other residents told the local paper that they did hear alarms — but only after the building had collapsed at 1:22 a.m.
Another resident, Daniela Silva, told the paper that she heard an alarm at 1:30 a.m. after being awaken by the pool deck's collapse.
"If the alarm had gone off [earlier], lives would have been saved," resident Raysa Rodriguez told the Herald.
Champlain Towers South Condominium Association did not immediately respond to a request from Insider for comment on Monday.