4 years later, investigators still haven’t determined what caused the Surfside collapse

Almost 4 years ago, the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed in the morning in Surfside, causing the near-instant deaths of 98 people. But it’s been 4 years and what’s shocking is that the government agency investigating the incident still has no clue what caused the Champlain Towers South condominium to collapse.

On Monday, June 23, 2025, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shared a video trying to explain what they know.

“Our team has worked tirelessly to find the causes of this disaster and we are in the home stretch now,” said Judith Mitrani-Reiser, the NIST lead investigator.

The video released by NIST reiterates the facts of a report published by NBC6 four years ago. The video shows the inside and outside of the building and can certainly tell what happened, but it still cannot tell why it happened.

“Our team is on schedule to complete the evaluation of failure hypothesis this fiscal year and release a public report next year,” Mitrani-Reiser said.

The fact that the reason for the incident was not disclosed until four years later proves that investigators knew the construction was against regulations and did not match the drawings. In 1981, Champlain Towers South was built improperly. Some changes were made, but no engineer warned anyone about it.

“The collapse of Champlain Tower South is one of the most tragic building failures in our country’s history,” Mitrani-Reiser said. “…to fail to take everything we’ve learned and can learn from this tragedy and direct it to improve public safety would be a horrible injustice to the 98 lives lost,” she added.