The demolition of a Miami apartment complex that went up in flames a week ago and displaced dozens of residents began on Tuesday morning.
City of Miami officials said they have to act urgently because the four-story Temple Court Apartments building on Northwest 3rd Street could collapse at any moment, leaving the people who live there with absolutely no chance to retrieve any of their personal belongings.
Aerial footage showed heavy machinery at the building beginning the demolition process early Tuesday.
Traffic in the surrounding area will be impacted as the demolition continues.
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Last Monday, a violent fire ripped through the building, destroying almost everything. According to police, resident Juan Figueroa shot a maintenance worker and set the building on fire.
Firefighters worked hard to get everybody out safely. A week later, the City of Miami announced the building would be demolished as soon as possible because it posed an imminent risk of collapse.
Mercedes Gouthmann is one of the 43 displaced residents who is being temporarily housed at a Motel Six in northwest Miami-Dade. She lives on the first floor and is not allowed inside her apartment to get her purse — and all she has to do, she said, is to open her door and grab it.
Gouthmann told NBC6 she lived in the Temple Court Apartments for the last couple of years with her son, who has autism, and her chihuahua Fiona.
When she gets a new apartment, they’ll recuperate everything, but they are starting from zero, she said — like they just got here today from another country.
The building sustained severe damage, with the upper floors of the two wings currently supporting debris from the collapsed roof. Floors have also been exposed to the weight of recent rainfall, making an already dangerous situation worse.
The city said significant wind could cause interior and exterior walls that have lost structural support of the roof to collapse.
“Nobody can get in there because it is so dangerous that not even the firefighters are allowed to walk in the building, and I feel bad for all those people who lost everything," said Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes.
Gouthmann said she knows the building is in really bad shape, but everything inside is material and material things can be replaced.
