HANCOCK COUNTY — An hour before starting another noon-to-midnight shift in the difficult rescue and recovery operation in Surfside, Florida, Brandon Kleine was preparing to set aside the weariness and push forward on a mission that is becoming increasingly grim.
Kleine, chief of the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department, is part of a team of first-responders from Indiana USAR Task Force 1 who left Thursday, July 1, to assist at the site of the Champlain Towers collapse. Three other Hancock County first-responders — including one of the group’s leaders — have been working 12-hour shifts through the heat of the day, meticulously removing rubble and probing for any sign of life.
Fourteen days after the condominium tower collapsed in the middle of the night, that possibility was becoming increasingly unlikely, officials say. But the goal of the Indiana team and the hundreds of others of rescuers is to reunite families still searching for their loved ones. The death toll from the collapse climbed to 54 on Wednesday, July 7, when rescue crews discovered eight more bodies. Scores of people remain unaccounted for.
“I’m not gonna lie; it’s a mess, but we’re on a noble mission,” Kleine said. “We want to bring some closure to some of these families and get their loved ones back to them.”
The Indiana team also includes Sugar Creek Township firefighter Jeff Keithley and Beth Haggard of the Greenfield Fire Territory. The team is led by Hancock County resident Jay Settergren, who is a battalion chief for the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Settergren, the Indiana Task Force 1 training coordinator, said the deployment has been difficult.
“It’s very physically demanding, working on the rubble pile,” Settergren said by phone on Tuesday, July 6, during a break from the delicate excavation work.
Knowing what likely lies within the pile of pulverized concrete and twisted rebar is also taking a toll.
“You’re very hopeful that you’re going to find someone who has made it, but we haven’t had success with that the past few days, and while we’re optimistic, it’s heavy on our folks,” Settergren said. No one has been rescued since the first hours after the collapse at 1:30 a.m. June 24.
The 80-person Indiana team is one of five FEMA squads at the scene. Recovery efforts are going on around the clock. They have been interrupted only by weather — the storm named Elsa struck a glancing blow — and the decision to bring down the rest of the complex that was left standing when the structure at the base of the 12-story tower apparently gave way. Most of the residents were asleep.
“This is a terrible tragedy,” Kleine said. “You’re talking about a collapsed tower in the middle of the night that had multiple people in it who had no warning this was going to happen.”
Settergren, who said his team is made up of some of the best rescue personnel in the United States, admitted no amount of training can truly prepare a first-responder for this type of mission.
“There are 28 of these FEMA teams who do over 15,000 hours of training each year on top of our regular jobs, so while we have technical-minded rescue folks who are here to do the best they can, it’s a big task when you pull up on something like this,” Settergren said.
The weather has been a factor. Daytime temperatures have reached the upper 90s, coupled with high humidity. Downpours have dropped as much as 2 inches of rain, and operations have been paused due to lightning in the area.
“We’re working really long hours under very stressful conditions, and it’s a lot to put on people,” Settergren said.
Indiana Task Force 1 released photos of the Indiana team climbing mounds of debris at the scene earlier this week. Although heavy equipment is being used, much of the debris is being removed by hand.
The mission of the Indiana team — which could be in Florida for up to 21 days or more — switched from rescue to recovery on Wednesday after authorities told sobbing relatives that there was no chance anyone is still alive in the rubble.
“It doesn’t matter what they call it,” Kleine said before the announcement. “We’re here to return people to their families, and I don’t think anyone on our team is planning on leaving until that job is done.”
Kleine and the other local first-responders, who deal with life and death on a regular basis, said the work at such a catastrophic level is taxing, but he and the Indiana team members are up for the job.
“God didn’t give me many talents, but I am up for this and I’m lucky because I’m surrounded by other first-responders who feel the same,” he said.
Kleine is a staging officer for the day shift in charge of covering the collapse area. His job is to make sure all team members working 12-hour shifts remain hydrated and rested to avoid injury.
The work became more complex with new debris after the demolition of the still-standing section late Sunday. But the demolition seems to seems to have accelerated the pace of recovering more deceased victims.
Rescuers have been able to make their way into parts of the underground garage. They also have been able to begin excavations in parts of the site that were previously inaccessible.
Kleine said the local community in Surfside has embraced their efforts, donating food and thanking them as they walk to and from the site each day.
“You hate to see what happened here because it’s such a great community,” Kleine said.
For Kleine, who gave up his 42nd birthday celebration with his family and tickets to see the Reds and Cubs play baseball, said it was not a big deal compared to the task at hand.
“I’d give it all up again in a second to help others,” he said.{pre style=”overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;”} {/pre}
