It was terrifying hearing about the Surfside condo building collapse last year when those buildings crumbled in the middle of the night killing nearly everyone inside. Right after it happened, there was a lot of confusion about the events that had transpired. Using what little video footage that was taken by onlookers ahead of and during the event, investigators tried to piece together a timeline of everything that occurred. One of the videos that was shown on international news showed chunks of concrete slab breaking apart in the parking garage underneath the condominium buildings in the moments leading up to the collapse. Water can be seen bursting on the ground below from broken plumbing in the quickly crumbling building above. Then the news learned of the inspection that deemed the building unsafe until serious concrete and rebar wire repairs could be made. Apparently a lot of exposed rebar tie wire showed that it was heavily corroded underneath the concrete that it was intended to hold together. A combination of high salinity and chlorine water from an adjacent pool seeped into the concrete over decades of time since the building was constructed until it reached a point of criticality and suddenly collapsed like a controlled building demolition. Corrosion-resistant rebar tie wire like galvanized and stainless steel options are favored in applications where salt or chlorine water is likely to seep into the concrete over long periods of time. It’s possible that the building wasn’t made with the best quality steel rebar tie wire, nor was the highest quality concrete utilized either. A number of critical factors played into the tragedy of the Surfside condominium building collapse.