Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade, said yesterday an emergency crew working around the clock to find survivors in the Surfside building collapse have refused to abandon the site despite being told they can go home.

State officials said they didn’t expect to find any more survivors and the rescue effort is now focused on recovery. The decision to end the rescue effort came after crews completed a search of the last area where they expected to find pockets of debris large enough to possibly contain survivors.

The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue took to Twitter yesterday to post a video of a moment of “silence & prayer” near the collapse site.

“With heavy hearts, we begin search & recovery efforts, and will continue to give our all as our commitment still remains to reunite families with their loved ones,” the post said.

Eight more bodies were recovered yesterday, bringing the death toll to 54. Thirty-three of the dead have been identified, and 86 people are still unaccounted for.