Authorities have publicly identified one of the at least four victims killed when a 12-story condo building in Florida collapsed on Thursday morning,
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s identified Stacie Fang, 54 as the first victim in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida.
Fang died of blunt force injuries at the Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, the county medical examiner told Insider. Her death has been ruled an accident.
Fang was vice president of Customer Relationship Management Conference, a company that produces an annual event in Chicago for customer relationship management retail and marketing executives. She had worked at the Surfside-based firm for 12 years, according to the Palm Beach Post.
“There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang and Handler (families) would like to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and support we have received,” a statement from the family read. “The many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much-needed source of strength during this devastating time.”
Her 15-year-old son Jonah Handler was one of the first two people pulled alive from the rubble on Thursday morning hours after the building collapsed.
He was rescued by Nicholas Balboa, who was walking his dog near the buildings around midnight when he heard the ground shake, followed by a loud crash. He approached the piles of concrete and metal and heard a scream.
Balboa said he saw fingers popping out through the broken concrete and heard a boy’s voice say, “Can somebody see me?”
“He was just saying, ‘Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me.’ I told him: ‘We’re not gonna go anywhere. We’ll be here,'” Balboa said.
Handler has been hospitalized but suffered no serious injuries.
“He was rescued, but he has no idea what happened to his mother,” Fang’s sister, Virginia Borges, previously told The Washington Post. “Nobody has any idea what happened to her. It’s like she just disappeared.”
“He wants to know what happened to his mother,” Borges said at the time. “We all want to know.”
