SURFSIDE, FLA. (WSVN) – South Florida is marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic condominium collapse in Surfside by honoring the victims’ memories.

Loved ones gathered early Wednesday morning at 98 Points of Light Way to honor the 98 souls who perished when a nightmare unfolded at 1:15 a.m. on June 24, 2021.

The Champlain Towers South condo crumbled where it had stood for 40 years, changing the lives of countless families, first responders and the entire community.

“Today’s lighting of the torch, let it be a symbol of remembrance, of resiliency and hope,” said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Ray Jadallah.

Among the survivors who attended the overnight remembrance was Devin Gonzalez, who fell out of Apartment 904. Her father, Edgar Gonzalez, did not make it out.

“The best thing, honestly, that we can do is just to look at the mistakes from the past and make sure that we don’t make them again,” said Devin.

The lighting of the torch at 98 Points of Light Way comes two days after a federal group of investigators released their findings on the likely cause of the collapse.

“We have concluded that the failure most likely began in early June, about three weeks before the collapse, when two connections between garage columns and the pool deck slab failed,” said Judith Mitrani-Reiser, co-lead investigator with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Construction Safety Team.

NIST-NCST’s report blames a combination of design and construction issues, as well as environmental factors.

“We found no evidence of any specific initiating event. The final factor that brought the critically low margins of safety to the point of failure was most likely long-term degradation from corrosion,” said Glenn Bell, another co-lead investigator with NIST-NCST.

Martin Langesfeld, who lost his sister Nicky in the collapse, takes issue with the timing of the report’s release.

“It took them five years, nearly $40 million, for this federal investigation to be completed, and it came back with absolutely nothing new,” he said. “The community will not forget what happened on the site behind me.”

Langesfeld’s family continues to hold on to memories of the good times with Nicky and her husband Luis Sadovnic.

The irony, Langesfeld said, is the newlyweds lives ended in the very place they saw themselves building a beautiful future together.

“They had plans for a family that they will never see, and they had a future together,” he said. “They moved into what they called their dream home, their dream apartment, to start their life, and exactly that is what took their life from them.”

Another remembrance ceremony will take place at 98 Points of Light Way on Wednesday. It is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

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