(CNN) – Just after midnight, as he was walking his dog, Nicholas Balboa felt himself trembling on the ground near a building in Surfside, Florida.
Columns of dust and debris quickly rose everywhere when a large portion of a surfboard condo complex collapsed to the ground on Thursday.
No one could have survived, Balboa thought.
As people gathered in front of the building, he and another man walked to the back of the beach.
“It’s bizarre, quiet, quiet,” he told CNN. “It was almost straight from a horror movie.”
Then someone shouted.
Balboa and the man followed the sound. Then Balboa saw something: small fingers, chipped concrete and twisted metal under a mountain.
“Finally, I got close enough to ask him, ‘Can you see my hand?’ He was coming up வழியாக through the rubble.I could see his hand and fingers moving.
Balboa turned on the light on his phone and called for help, a police officer approached, he said. Finally more rescuers arrived.
The boy, who was under the mattress and bed frame, was pulled out, he said. At least one of the 35 was rescued Thursday morning; At least one person was confirmed dead.
“He was apparently asleep,” Balboa said. “I can only imagine how many people slept in their apartment or watched TV or lived their lives. Unbeknownst to them, the building was about to collapse.”
Rescuers guide one to safety
Although it was not immediately clear whether the same boy would be rescued, a hopeful scene of pre-dawn destruction was also filmed in the video.
As firefighters wearing yellow or red helmets chase the vast trash can, a rescuer looks like a crumbling wall, with its reinforced metal rods soaring into the sky, the video captured by reliable newsmedia shows.
The assistant, guided by the comrades’ flashing lights, grabbed one of the dark shirts and pajama bottoms and led the way at night.
The survivor slowly leaned over, leaning on the rescuer’s right shoulder and placing his feet on the big man’s chest, the reliable Newsmedia video shows. The survivor then rolled on a white stretcher and helped rescue crews secure the orange stripes.
The group picked up the man when an alarm sounded a flat horn in three explosions.