Four More Bodies Found at Site of Miami-Area Condo Collapse

“We will continue 24 hours a day for the indefinite future until everybody is pulled out of that site,” Mr. Burkett said at a news conference Monday evening.

Earlier Monday officials said they hoped that access to new parts of the debris field would lead them to spaces where people could have survived the collapse.

“We’re looking for voids,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Monday morning. “Where someone may have been able to be inside, that is the purpose of the search right now.”

The death toll from the June 24 collapse stands at 28 and the number of unaccounted for is at 117. No one has been rescued since the first few hours after the collapse.

Officials demolished the remaining tower in a controlled explosion Sunday at 10:30 p.m. and the search and rescue effort began about an hour later. As search and rescue teams sift through the rubble, the circle of investigators gathering information about why the building collapsed is widening, Ms. Levine Cava said.

“We understand that families realize the fact that time has gone by, they realize that the chances are growing all dimmer,” Ms. Levine Cava said.

Officials accelerated their plans to take down the part of the building that had remained standing because of forecasts for high winds and the approaching Tropical Storm Elsa. The storm is now projected to skirt the Miami area, but thunderstorms and high winds are still in the forecast.

On Sunday night, just before the demolition, area residents gathered several blocks north of the collapse.

“If you have a mask, put it on!” a police officer shouted to the people who had gathered, moments before dynamite took the building down, sending a cloud of dust higher than the building once stood.

Soraya Batista, a Surfside resident of 27 years, sat in front of her house near 89th Street and Abbott Avenue with a lighted candle next to her to watch the demolition. She said she has two friends who are residents there and unaccounted for.

“Yes, it is very heart-wrenching that this building was demolished, but there is no alternative to it,” Ms. Batista said.

Residents who fled without their pets on June 24 weren’t allowed to return to try to retrieve them. Ms. Levine Cava assured the public on Sunday that rescuers had used drones, thermal devices and traps to find any missing animals and that none had been located.

In an emotional legal hearing at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, an animal rescue volunteer begged the court to let her into an apartment to retrieve the cat, Coco, of an 86-year-old woman who had been rescued from the building. Attorney Paula Phillips said her client knew she would be putting herself at risk but was asking the court “to allow people the freedom to decide whether they want to go into the building and retrieve these animals. They understand the risk, they understand this building could come down at any time.”

Dave Murray, an attorney for Miami-Dade County, said the building was already loaded with explosives that were set to begin detonating around 10 p.m. and that it would endanger too many people to allow owners a last-ditch opportunity to find their pets.

Judge Michael Hanzman of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida in Miami-Dade County denied the motion, saying he deferred to the decisions made by the town, county and federal governments.

Ms. Levine Cava said destroying the building was a difficult decision that she made by balancing the desire to keep searching for victims and investigate the collapse with the need to protect rescue workers and area residents from harm if the building were to fall. Officials had previously expected to take weeks planning a methodical removal of the remaining structure.

“We’re still praying that we can possibly find survivors,” said Oliver Gilbert, vice chair for the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. “We’re praying that we can figure out exactly why this happened.”

Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com