Miami firefighter’s daughter found in collapse rubble

Florida – According to officials, on Friday the body of the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter was recovered from the site of the collapsed condominium tower in Surfside.

Urban Search and Rescue Team said they found the girl’s body in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South Thursday night.

Officials said the firefighter, a member of the team that found his daughter but was not on scene at the time, was notified immediately.

According to officials, family members identified the girl as Stella, the daughter of Graciela Cattarossi, who lives in the building with her parents, Gino and Graciela Sr. The three adults remain missing.

“It goes without saying that every night since this last Wednesday has been immensely difficult for everybody,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters at a news conference Friday. “But last night was uniquely different, it was truly different and more difficult for our first responders.”

“We ask that you respect the privacy of the immediate family as well as our Fire Department family while we grieve our loss and support our own,” the fire department said in a statement.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the department is “grieving, tremendously.”

“I’m the father of two children. I have a 7-year-old son. And the thought of losing him in this way is unimaginable. For me, my family, and I, I think this tragedy has haunted so many of us because so many of us have known someone who has been in the building or affected by this tragedy,” Suarez said. “And so now, not only do we know someone, this is someone that’s a member of our, of our family, of our fire family.”

Levine Cava said the death toll from the collapse has reached 22, with another 126 people unaccounted for.