Miami firefighters transfer to the police the recovery work in the rubble of the collapsed building

(CNN) – The Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue Department transferred search and recovery tasks after the building collapse in Surfside, Florida, to the Miami-Dade Police Department, according to Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s office.

“The operation is ongoing, and the Miami-Dade Police Department continues to search the pile of debris for both human remains and personal items until they have completed an additional full search of the debris,” says a press release from the office. of the mayor.

“At this step in the recovery process, it has become increasingly difficult to identify the victims, and we are relying heavily on the work of the coroner’s office and the scientific and technical process of identifying human remains,” adds the release.

“This job gets more difficult as time goes by even though our teams are working as hard and fast as they can,” he says.

“The men and women of the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue Department ran into a collapsed building in the early morning of June 24 and have not stopped since. They are true superheroes who have stepped forward to serve this community after an unprecedented disaster, not only leading the search and rescue and recovery operation, but through the care and compassion they have shown to all the families, doing everything they could to bring closure to those who lost their loved ones. ” the mayor said in the statement.

“We are also very grateful to the Miami-Dade Police Department, which has led the investigation from the beginning, and is now continuing the challenging work of continuing to examine millions of kilos of debris, searching for remains and personal items to bring closure. to families, “he added.