New Jersey native among victims in Miami-area condo collapse

Among the victims were 54-year-old Stacy Dawn Fang, a New Jersey native. She was inside the condo with her son as it collapsed.

News 12 Staff

Jun 26, 2021, 1:54 PM

Updated 1,253 days ago

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Saturday marks the third day of search and rescue efforts at a high-rise condo near Miami that collapsed without warning – leaving four people dead and nearly 160 missing.
Among the victims were 54-year-old Stacy Dawn Fang, a New Jersey native. She was inside the condo with her son as it collapsed.
Her son, 15-year-old Jonah Handler, was pulled from the rubble and made it out alive. Fang was out pulled out but was pronounced dead at a local hospital just after 3:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.
In a statement from the Fang and Handler family, they say: “There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang and Handler family would like to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and support we have received. The many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much-needed source of strength during this devastating time.”
Fires and smoke deep within the collapse have made it difficult for rescue teams to get in, and no survivors have been found since Thursday.
"Our top priority now continues to be search and rescue. We continue to have hope and we are continuing to search, and we are looking for people alive in the rubble, that is our priority and our teams have not stopped,” says Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Officials are still investigating the cause of the collapse, but a 2018 engineering report said that the oceanfront condo had “major structural damage” to a concrete structural slab below its pool deck that needed extensive repairs.
The report did not warn of imminent danger from the damage, but it did note the need for costly repairs to fix the slab, along with damaged concrete column beams and walls.
"We are going to conduct a full and thorough investigation with all of our local, state and federal resources coming on the scene,” Cava says.
Stacy Fang is expected to be laid to rest in New Jersey on Sunday.
A Lakewood couple is also among the missing. Neighbors tell News 12 New Jersey that the couple's names are Benny and Malki Weiss and that they left for Florida earlier this week for vacation. They have not been heard from since the collapse.