Criminal investigators join probe of Oakland fire
UNITED STATES: Alameda County prosecutors have assigned criminal investigators to probe the Oakland warehouse fire as the death toll has risen to 33.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced the move yesterday as the grim search continued.
Schaaf did not provide many details about a criminal probe, which would be handled by the office of District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley. She said she was not authorised to announce a formal criminal investigation but said D.A. investigators were at the scene actively reviewing evidence.
‘‘It is far too early to have suspicions about what caused this fire,’’ the mayor said.
There has been growing scrutiny about the warehouse, which was the subject of health and safety complaints that the city was investigating at the time of the fire.
Alameda County Sheriff’s Sergeant. Ray Kelly called the death toll an ‘‘astronomical number’’ but warned that officials expect to find more victims as the search continues. Officials asked the families of the missing to preserve DNA samples of loved ones so they could be used to help identify victims.
Searchers painstakingly sifted through the rubble of the building through the night. They described it as a horrific scene of destruction, with many concertgoers unable to flee when the fire broke out.
Yesterday morning, people walked up to the caution tape barrier at the warehouse, trying to see beyond the TV cameras at the charred building. A couple held hands and stared forward. A man nursed a cup of coffee and leaned against a wall.
The smell of smoke lingered in the air. People had placed roses in a chain link fence across the street.
John Ko’s cousin is among those still missing. Ko came up from Los Angeles with some of his family after hearing about the fire on Saturday (local time).
They’d been at the victims centre nearby, Ko said, but they wanted to see the site of the fire itself.
‘‘It’s our said.
The fire’s cause is not known. Arson is not suspected, but Kelly said nothing had been ruled out.
The property is one of several owned by Chor N. Ng, according to her daughter, Eva Ng, 36. She said the warehouse was leased as studio space for an art collective and not used as a dwelling.
‘‘Nobody lived there,’’ she told the Los Angeles Times, adding, ‘‘It was an art collective.’’
She said she had asked her leaseholders about the issue and had been reassured that nobody lived in the building. - LA Times first time here,’’ he