NJ Task Force 1 Deploys to Site of Florida Condo Collapse

New Jersey's elite Task Force 1 is headed for Florida to help with the condo tower collapse outside of Miami.

70 members specializing in search, rescue, and recovery will help dig through the rubble of the Champlain Tower.

Crew members have all been trained in advanced search and rescue operations involving collapsed buildings. Some worked on the pile in New York City after the 9-11 attacks brought down the World Trade Center towers. Members also responded to parking garage collapses in Atlantic City in 2003 and Hackensack in 2010.  This unit has deployed eight times as a search and rescue crew since 2016.

In addition to the human crew members, two K9 units have joined the caravan traveling to Miami. Dogs have been critical to the recovery operation since the beginning. Dogs trained in both the discovery of survivors and detecting human remains have helped guide crews to areas to search.

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Crews have recovered more remains from the rubble, and for the first time, the victims are children. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava called the news "too great to bear," as she announced the recovery of Emma Guara, 4, and her sister Lucia Guara, 10. Their parents were also killed in the collapse. The discovery brings the number of confirmed dead to 18. 145 remain missing, including a young couple from Lakewood who arrived to visit the woman's father just hours before the building came down.