At 1:22 a.m. on June 24, 2021, the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, a beachfront suburb of Miami, partially collapsed without warning. The disaster killed 98 people and injured 11 others, making it one of the deadliest structural failures in U.S. history. Rescue workers pulled four survivors from the rubble in the immediate aftermath, though one died from injuries shortly after reaching the hospital. Another 35 residents were safely evacuated from the intact portion of the building that same morning.

The 40-year-old building had a history of water damage and structural concerns that would later fuel investigations into maintenance failures. Condo associations had previously noted deteriorating conditions in underground parking areas and concrete damage in official documents. Building officials had begun requiring inspections of structures older than 40 years in Surfside, and Champlain Towers South was approaching that threshold when the collapse occurred. The exact sequence of structural failure involved the loss of support columns in the lower levels, a process that may have developed over months or years.

Rescue teams worked for two weeks in the rubble, using dogs and heat-sensing equipment to locate victims. The remaining portion of the building, deemed unsafe by engineers, was demolished on July 4, 2021, ten days after the initial collapse. The tragedy prompted widespread scrutiny of aging condo buildings across South Florida and the nation, leading to stricter inspection requirements and renewed debates about building maintenance, insurance liability, and the cost of preserving older residential structures. Families of victims pursued investigations and litigation that would continue for years, seeking answers about how such a catastrophic failure could occur.