Nine of the 98 Surfside victims may have SURVIVED the initial condo collapse: Fire rescue logs show woman was alive in rubble for TEN HOURS
Fire logs from 6.42 a.m. and 7.44 a.m. showed that canines signaled possible live victims.
At 11.05 a.m. - about ten hours after the initial crumbled - fire logs indicated rescuers 'lost voice contact' with a victim and requested canine backup for a live search of the basement of the partially-collapsed building.
At 11.17 a.m. rescuers needed a 'new chipping hammer and power supply'.
By 11.30 a.m. two 'companies' were actively 'chipping' in an attempt to gain an entrance, and at 11.50 a.m. everyone was directed 'out of the hole' so canines could enter, as reported by USA Today.
Miami-Dade officials said the instability of the remaining structure posed a lethal threat to rescuers who were battling underground flooding, fires, smoke, wind, rain, lightning and extreme heat.
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According to USA Today medical examiners cited injuries that, on their own, would not result in immediate death or even be considered life-threatening.
Wounds included small cuts, 'possible' fractures, broken legs and, in one case, no sight of physical trauma - which Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said is a 'horrifying thought'.
Two such reports were filed for Deborah Berezdivin and Ilan Naibryf, both 21. The USA Today investigation revealed the two were dating and living together in Unit 811.
According to the medical examiner's report, Berezdivin had no visible injuries. An X-ray showed only that her right ribs 'appear to have fractures'.
Naibryf suffered a 15cm-by-five cm cut on his thigh and 'possible fractures,' the report showed.
At the request of USA Today, the medical examiner's reports in question were reviewed by independent forensic autopsy pathologist Dr Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner of New York City.
Officials previously provided contradicting information, telling the public that all of the deceased victims died at or near the moment collapse.
Baden - former chairman of the forensic pathology panel of the US Congress Select Committee on Assassinations - said it was 'inaccurate' for officials to say that none of the victims survived the initial collapse.
Graciela Cattarossi, 48, also did not appear to suffer fatal injuries. Her report showed a five cm-by-three cm cut on the back of her head and a nine cm-by-five cm cut on her left knee.
‘None of Cattarossi's injuries are life-threatening,' Baden told USA Today. 'It's not the kind of injuries that would have caused death immediately.'
USA Today's investigation revealed four-year-old Emma Guara's injuries sustained during the collapse were insufficiently severe to have caused her death. Her report showed two broken and a 'suggestion of left upper rib fractures'.
Baden told USA Today one of the medical examiner's reports that most troubled him was that of 52-year-old Harold Rosenberg, who lived in Unit 212.
Rosenberg's daughter and son-in-law also died as a result of the collapse but according to medical examiners he did not have any evidence of injury whatsoever.
Reports simply listed Rosenberg's cause of death as 'building collapse' - which Baden cited is an event, not an injury.
Baden said: 'An autopsy should have been performed on Harold Rosenberg. Nobody will accept 'building collapse' as a cause of death.'
Gloria Machado, 71, also did not appear to have immediate life-threatening injuries. USA Today reported records showed she suffered 'fractures of the skull and facial bones, ribs, spinal column, legs and feet,' as well as 'global laceration of the scalp with multiple skull fractures and multiple facial fractures'.
Six minutes after the collapse 911 operators received a call from a man claiming to be Machado's son, fire rescue logs showed.
The caller said he 'received a call from his mother' and she was 'trapped inside her apartment 1111 and unable to get out,' according to the fire logs.
The caller's identification is redacted from the report and the fire department declined to provide USA TODAY with any details about the caller or the outcome of any investigation into the incident.
Baden said he could not rule out the possibility that Machado made that call herself. He said her injuries appeared survivable, or she might have sustained them later or even after death, from crushing shifts in the debris.
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36-year-old Sophia Lopez Mareira - the sister of Paraguay's first lady - for example, of Unit 1010. Moreira, her husband, three children and nanny were all killed in the collapse.
The medical examiner's report showed Moreira suffered rib and pelvic fractures, a cut on her left thigh and another in the groin area - none of which would necessarily lead to death, Baden said.
'That's why looking inside the body can be helpful,' he added.
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The investigation has raised questions about whether any more victims of the tragic event could have been rescued, how the collapse has been investigated and why more autopsies have not been performed.
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Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials declined USA Today's request for comment.
Witness reports also show there might have been other survivors.
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Miami-Dade police announced at several press conferences that they immediately designated the collapse site a crime scene. However, autopsies were never mandated and USA Today contacted the department last week to find out why.
'It's not a criminal investigation, it's a death investigation,' said Alvaro Zabaleta, the public information officer for the Miami-Dade Police Department.
But 'criminal investigation' was precisely the reason cited by the condo association's court-appointed receiver for not allowing an independent structural engineer hired by the town of Surfside to access neither the collapse site nor the debris being stored in two off-site locations.
The fact that the site was designated a crime scene was also what led Surfside commissions to pass a resolution on August 10 allowing them to pursue legal action against the county, which would allow them to access the collapse site and stored debris.
Mayor Burkett told USA Today that the police departments statement was 'news to me as far as the assertion that it's not a crime scene'.
