Families react to federal report on Surfside condo collapse

[00:00:00]We'll now see new reaction over a federal report that shares more insight into what caused the Surfside condo collapse 5 years ago.

[00:00:07]>> Just weeks ago, we told you federal investigation federal investigators announced the building's collapse began 3 weeks before the building actually fell. Our team investigator Katie LaGrone was reporting on the scene there on the ground in Surfside in the days following that tragedy.

[00:00:23]>> And you tonight Katie is following through hearing from a victim's brother and the independent investigator who was hired to conduct his own probe.

[00:00:34]>> Oh my god.

[00:00:36]>> 5 years after this devastating and deadly condominium collapse in Surfside, Martin Langesfeld is still angry and seeking answers.

[00:00:44]>> I just want to know why did they take 5 years to come to pretty much inconclusive answers? Where did the $40 million go into the investigations?

[00:00:51]>> Langesfeld's sister and brother-in-law were among the 98 victims who died when Champlain Towers South crumbled to the ground in the shocking overnight 2021 collapse. Last month, just days before the 5-year remembrance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released its most conclusive findings yet on what caused the oceanfront building to crumble, pointing to failed connectors between garage columns and the pool deck, causing cracks to grow and loads to shift to columns that weren't strong enough. According to this federal report, the problem started 3 weeks before the collapse with investigators tracing issues back decades to deviations from the building's original designs. Langesfeld, who's been an outspoken critic of the city and federal government's handling of the tragedy, isn't impressed with the findings.

[00:01:40]>> The collapse of the pool deck, we already knew this years ago and the parking garage, this is nothing new, so I don't know why NIST is acting as if this is all new information. We knew this.

[00:01:51]>> We agree that that concept is essentially where it started.

[00:01:57]Uh we knew that a year and a half ago.

[00:02:00]>> Alan Kleinsfeld is the engineer hired by the city of Surfside to independently investigate the cause of the collapse.

[00:02:07]He's talking publicly for the first time about the government's latest findings.

[00:02:11]>> It's easy to say that the construction didn't follow the design drawings at the time, but where and how and how did it have anything to do with this collapse?

[00:02:19]>> Kleinsfeld never finished his probe. A few years into his investigation, city commissioners terminated his near $3 million contract after the feds wouldn't grant him access to evidence.

[00:02:32]>> It ended from my vantage point without allowing me to finish what I started and without allowing me to do what I promised the real people in Surfside.

[00:02:42]>> While he agrees with the government's overall assessment so far, he questions some of the details, including the government's pre-collapse timeline.

[00:02:51]>> You wouldn't have been able to necessarily see that, okay, hey, something started, you know, at least a month before it happened.

[00:03:00]>> They must be a whole lot smarter than me because I don't know how anybody could possibly determine that something started 3 weeks before unless they're talking about some cracks that were reported months before.

[00:03:13]>> Kleinsfeld doesn't think he'll be asked to finish what he started. If he was >> I believe in doing what I promised.

[00:03:20]>> So, you would?

[00:03:21]>> Yeah.

[00:03:22]Cuz that's what I promised.

[00:03:24]>> Meanwhile, Martin Langesfeld has no plans to end his hunt for answers and who's responsible.

[00:03:30]>> Whoever had any part in this tragedy that killed 98 people must be held accountable. I do it on my in my sister's name. She was an attorney and she fought for justice and accountability and I made a promise the day that she was taken that I would do that on her behalf.

[00:03:45]>> To date, no one has been criminally charged with this collapse. The Miami State Attorney's Office tells me if there are any criminal violations, they would have to be proven without a reasonable doubt, a difficult and very high standard to meet. I'm my team investigator, Katie LaGrone, Tampa Bay, 28.