A resident of the collapsed building in Surfside, Fla. is likely alive today thanks to his girlfriend’s insistence that he spend the night at her house.
Erick de Moura told CNN that he was on the way out the door of his girlfriend Fernanda Figueiredo’s apartment when she stopped him.
“I was supposed to come back home because I had some appointments in the morning. And I was right at the door about to leave,” de Moura told the outlet. “But she kept insisting for me to stay.”
de Moura said when he woke up at 5:30 a.m. and checked his phone, he learned of the incident.
Rochelle, a doorman supervisor at the building, had called him to check in and see if he was okay.
“Oh, my God, you’re alive,” Rochelle said, according to The Washington Post.
de Moura said he was shocked by the news, especially since he rarely stays over at Figueiredo’s on a weeknight.
“That night was unusual,” de Moura told the Post. “I was going to leave Fernanda’s house to go home and take a shower and die.”
The resident is lamenting the loss of his neighbors as rescue workers try to recover the 150 missing people from the rubble, from which 11 people have been found dead.
“There’s definitely a lot of pain at this moment,” de Moura said. “I’m very grateful to be alive, but very sad for the tragedy of everybody.”