As Surfside rescue efforts continue, forensics teams seek DNA to identify remains

SURFSIDE, Fla. - The smoke began to clear from the rubble in Surfside, Florida on Sunday, as rescue teams delicately dampened fires burning deep within it, careful not to cause more damage in the process.

Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, visited the remnants of the collapsed condo, tweeting her thanks to urban search and rescue crews, and first responders, who navigated through the debris despite the small fires burning deep inside.

"The exposure for rescuers, it's very dangerous. They're breathing the dust, they're breathing the smoke, they're breathing all the chemical contaminants," Mark Neveau, a former FEMA presidential appointee, said.

Cadena International, a group from Mexico's Jewish community, brought a new device to the rescue effort, which uses microwave radars to detect breathing and heartbeats beneath the concrete.

They also brought a rescue dog.

"The dogs are a tool along with technology, and personnel and drones, and everything else trying to locate folks," Neveau said.

At the Family Reunification Center located at the Grand Beach Hotel Surfside at 9449 Collins Ave., relatives of the missing are being asked for their DNA swabs, which will be used to match remains found in the debris.

Teams from the ANDE Corporation helped identify people who lost their lives in California's catastrophic Camp Fire in 2018. 

Julie French, the senior vice president of global scientific support for the ANDE corporation, says DNA from blood samples, organ tissue, and saliva undergo rapid DNA testing. She said in severe disasters, bones are used to source DNA.

"I would imagine in this situation there will be some of each type of those samples, with the most severe being the bone samples will be tested," Julie French, the senior vice president of global scientific support for the ANDE Corporation, said.

"As sad as it is, it does bring some sense of closure to the families," Neveau said.

For Mike Noriega, the grandson of 92-year-old Hilda Noriega, who is still missing, closure comes in the form of a birthday card and an old family photo recovered in the wreckage.

"I just feel like it's really God's way of comforting us," Noriega said, "to say, either way, whatever happened with your grandmother, she's okay."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Oakland, Calif.