The first few calls to 911 started at 1:16 a.m. and there was little urgency. A woman calmly reported she heard an explosion. An alarm company noted a fire alarm had sounded.
But within minutes, as water was over the pool deck and dropping chunks of concrete, the scope of the unfolding disaster at Surfside’s Champlain Towers South began to emerge. Caller after caller began frantically relaying their stories to emergency dispatchers. One woman could be heard saying “it’s an earthquake outside.”
“Holy s--t. We gotta get outta here. Hurry up. Hurry up. There’s a big explosion,” one man told 911. He couldn’t described what exactly was happening. “I don’t know, there’s a lot of smoke going in, I can’t see right now. Gotta get out of here. Gotta get outta here.”
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