A woman’s voice was heard from the rubble during the initial rescue efforts at the Surfside condo collapse

By Tina Burnside, CNN

During initial search and rescue efforts, rescue crews heard the voice of a female trapped in the Surfside condo rubble, but were unable to reach her, Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said.

During a news conference on Thursday, Cominsky was asked about a female voice that was heard in the first few hours after the collapse. Rescue workers heard “audible sounds” of a female voice during the initial search and rescue efforts while working underneath the condo structure, he said.

Cominsky said crews heard the woman’s voice for several hours and kept searching until she could no longer be heard.

“Eventually we didn’t hear her voice anymore … we continued to search,” he said. “And, again, that’s emphasizing the magnitude of what we’re going through.”

“The efforts that all of our fire and rescue personnel, everyone that is here on scene, trying to do the best we can in these heroic efforts,” Cominsky said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have success.”

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Lt. Obed Frometa told CNN affiliate WPLG that situations like this give rescuers “a feeling of not only defeat, but it’s a feeling of loss. We are human, after all. We’re not robots. We’re not machines. We feel it.”

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