Bodies of two Australian victims found in Miami rubble after remaining condos demolished
An Australian woman with a “contagious love for life” and her devoted husband are among the latest deaths confirmed after an apartment building collapsed in Florida.
Miami-Dade police formally identified Ingrid and Tzvi Ainsworth as victims of the Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside.
The bodies of the former Sydney residents, aged 66 and 68, were found in the wreckage on Monday local time, taking the official death toll to 28.
After spending nearly 20 years living in Australia, the Ainsworths moved back to the US four years ago to be closer to some of their seven children and extended family. A grandchild was born the week of the building’s collapse.
Some 117 people remain missing 11 days after the 12-storey residential building partially collapsed. A searchand-rescue effort continued around the clock except for bad weather, dangerous shifting of the rubble, and this week’s demolition of the remaining structure.
Half the condominium building came down on 24 June and rescue workers were kept away from the unstable half that remained standing. But it was demolished on Sunday night allowing rescuers to search through fresh rubble and previously inaccessible places.
Four more victims – including the Ainsworths – were discovered on Monday.
Ingrid, known as Itty, was vibrant, honest, open and had a gift for making people feel like they were “the one”, a close friend, Tzippy Kastel, said.
“She just had this huge, contagious love for life ... this amazing aura and an energy about her,” Kastel said. “People were really drawn to her. From joyous to sad or to whatever it was, she was the one I would turn to.”
Kastel, who lives in the Ainsworths’ former home in Sydney, said it was beautiful how Tzvi treated his wife “like a queen”. “It’s a huge family and because of the type of people they are, it’s a community-wide tragedy.”
In a blog post for Mother’s Day 2020, daughter Chana Wasserman said her mother made friends with every person she met.
“Everyone was treated as equals,” she wrote. “My mother sees the world through rainbow-colored glasses with unicorns and dolphins diving in and out.”
The couple’s niece, Devorah Leah Phillips, described her aunt as very loving. “She fills up everyone’s buckets with an abundance of love and compliments that there is no space for negativity,” Phillips said in an Instagram post last week.
No one has been found alive since the first hours after the collapse.