The Miami teen who was pulled from the rubble in the Surfside condominium collapse met the group of first responders who rescued him moments after the deadly incident, it was reported Thursday.
“The first time we saw these nameless heroes was on the newsreels as they were pulling my boy out of the rubble,” Jonah Handler’s father Neil wrote on a Go Fund Me page set up for Jonah. “Now with God’s grace we stand next to each other sharing thanks and hope. Jonah is recovering from his physical injuries but as we all know, bittersweet is the long road ahead without his mom Stacie in our lives.” (RELATED: ‘There’s People In The Rubble Yelling’: 911 Audio Reveals Panic, Chaos After Surfside Condo Collapse)
Jonah Handler, the 16yo who survived the #SurfsideBuildingCollapse, reunites with 1st responders who saved him.
“First time we saw these nameless heroes was on the news…as they were pulling my boy out…with God’s grace we stand next to each other sharing thanks and hope.” pic.twitter.com/HCWW81Do4a
— Frances Wang (#FrannyInMiami) (@FrancesWangTV) July 15, 2021
Jonah Handler, 15, was seen in footage being dragged from the rubble moments after the building collapsed. His mother, 54-year-old Stacie Fang, was also pulled from the rubble but died a short time later from her injuries.
PULLED FROM RUBBLE: A young boy was pulled from the rubble where a beachfront condo tower collapsed in a Miami-area town. The collapse trapped residents in rubble and twisted metal and sent a cloud of debris throughout the neighborhood.
WHAT WE KNOW: https://t.co/4OlPzbxLTp pic.twitter.com/feu3YqiSIC
— WESH 2 News (@WESH) June 24, 2021
Fifty-five-year-old Nicolas Balboa was visiting his father in Surfside from Arizona and was walking his dog when he saw the Surfside condo collapse, according to NBC Miami.
Balboa quickly jumped in to help firefighters rescue Handler, according to the outlet.
“As I moved closer, I could hear somebody making noise and yelling. I started to get closer to the building and climbed into the debris, and I could hear him saying that he was over there, and I could see his arm sticking up through the debris and waving his hand,” Balboa reportedly said.
“He was just saying, ‘Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave me.’ I told him that we weren’t going to leave him. It was myself and one other person. So, we were there and we just felt like we could get to him. It didn’t feel right to just leave him, especially hearing that his voice was just so young.”
Authorities recovered 97 bodies from the rubble, though dozens more still remain unaccounted for.