ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis joined other state and local leaders Wednesday to honor Central Florida search and rescue teams involved in the rescue efforts after a June 2021 condominium tower collapse in South Florida. 

Patronis visited the headquarters of Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 4 members in Orlando and handed each of them a Surfside Memorial Challenge Coin commemorating their service and tireless work searching for survivors in the days after the collapse of the condo in Surfside.

Those crews worked long hours in dangerous conditions and hot and stormy weather to search for survivors after the condominium Champlain Towers South collapsed on June 24, 2021. The collapse left 98 people dead and 11 injured.

Despite their training, some task force members said there was no way to be prepared for what they found at the site.

"It doesn’t prepare you for the mental and emotional aspect you face when you are working inside of somebody’s home —  literally inside their apartment — finding their wedding pictures, finding their children’s toys and knowing that there’s an expired life somewhere in the area where you are working,” said Spencer Bashinski, of the Orlando Fire Department.

Through the Florida Legislature, Patronis is trying to secure $10 million more in funding that would go to Florida’s search and rescue teams. That money would help pay for tractors, cargo trailers, trucks, forklifts and utility vehicles to support their life-saving missions.