A Florida man is being called a hero after rescuing his family and an elderly woman from the Surfside beachfront condo collapse on Thursday that left at least four people dead and 159 unaccounted for.
When firefighters told Albert Aguero to get out of their Champlain Tower apartment quickly, he knew he and his family didn’t have a lot of time.
“When we got to the stairwell, we opened the door, and that’s when it really hit that we needed to really move because half the wall was missing in the stairwell,” Aguero said.
Aguero and his family made their way down 11 flights in the dark. When they reached the third floor, they came across and elderly woman who was being protected by a 25-year-old woman.
“I thought it was her granddaughter. It turned out not to be, and she was like, ‘You guys have to slow down because you’re gonna trample her,'” Aguero said. “At that point, my son and I kind of took the lead making sure got down to the first floor.”
As the group reached the first floor, the area was starting to flood.
“It probably collapsed like three feet, so our only way out was to crawl out of some rubble, so we were able to kind of push her along the rubble,” said Aguero.
Although everything in front of them was destroyed, Aguero was able to escape with his family and neighbors.
Aguero said the elderly woman was shaken, telling him ” ‘I’ve lived a good life, I’m good.’ ” But Aguero wasn’t going to leave her behind.
“I was like no, no, you’re going to make it to the 89th birthday, I promise,” he said.
Rescue crews have not stopped searching through the debris for survivors. Aguero and his family are heartbroken that there are people trapped underneath the rubble, but are holding on for hope of a miracle.
“I don’t know how or why we escaped, especially being on the top floor and making it down in that time was quite unbelievable,” he said.
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