Oakland expects theworst after fire
9 victims found, but dozens feared dead in warehouse
By By Hamed Aleaziz, Michael Cabanatuan and Kevin Fagan
OAKLAND, Calif. — At least nine people were killed and more than a dozen others were unaccounted for after the worst fire in decades in Oakland tore through a makeshift collection of artists’ spaces packed with people attending a music party, authorities said Saturday.
The blaze ignited around 11:30 p.m. Friday in the twostory converted warehouse while as manyas 100 people were inside for a performance by the Golden Donna 100 Percent Silk touring electronic dance music show.
Authorities said they expected the death toll to rise to as many as 40.
The building had permits for use only as a warehouse, not as a living or entertainment space, and there was no evidence the structure had fire sprinklers, officials said. Known as the Oakland Ghost Ship, the complex was under investigation by city officials for allegedly unpermitted construction and blight.
Firefighters said some victims apparently were trapped when they couldn’t flee down a narrow, ramshackle stairwell leading to the second floor that was nailed together out of pallets and other bits of wood.
“We’ve done a preliminary search, and we are up to nine known fatalities,” Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said at the scene. “There’s still a lot of the building that needs to be searched.”
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
“We expect the number
of deceased to go up,” Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said at an afternoon news conference. “We’re expecting the worst, maybe a couple dozen victims.”
He said most of the victims were in their 20s or 30s.
“We did not have a lot of victims go to hospitals,” he said. “It appeared they made it out or didn’t make it out.”
The Sheriff’s Office flew heat-seeking drones over the rubble early Saturday searching for survivors, Kelly said, but didn’t find any
As the fire engulfed the building, people streamed into the street outside. Scores of firefighters attacked the blaze, but as teams pushed into the building, the flames were so intense they had to back out again, said Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann.
“We went in about 20 yards on the ground floor” but were repulsed by the heat, smoke and danger from the indoor hodgepodge of hand-built furniture and artist work spaces, Hoffmann said. “It was a labyrinth.”
When the roof collapsed all the way to the first floor, all hope of quickly getting deep inside was lost.
Seven corpses were found on the building’s second level and two on the ground floor. By late afternoon, four of the victims had been removed from the building. None of their names was released.
Al Garcia, owner of Reed Supply Co. across the street from the burned building, said his sister lives near the warehouse and called him around midnight to tell him about the inferno. When he arrived, he said, flames were shooting out of the building.
“I knew people were dead,” he said. “There was no way anyone could get out.”
He found two young men, ages 17 and 18, sitting in the doorway of his business, dazed and clearly in shock. They told him they had heard about the party online and believed they were the last two people to escape the flames. They recalled rushing through thick black smoke, with the building caving in be- hind them. One of the teens “heard screaming and he followed the voices” outside, Garcia said.
Terry Ewing, whose girlfriend was at the electronic dance music show and was still missing Saturday, stood stone-faced outside the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office on East 12th Street, which had been converted into an assistance center for survivors and families searching for missing loved ones.
“Some friends came to my house this morning and told methere was a fire, and that we were missing some people,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s all we know so far There’s a lot of family in there. People in that place were very loved.”
Joel Shanahan, the electronic musician from Madison, Wis., who performs as Golden Donna, the party’s headline act, was confirmed to be safe by associates who posted the news on social media. Local musicians also performed on the bill, and some of them were still being sought by friends Saturday.
Mayor Libby Schaaf went to the scene Saturday and, between heavy sighs, called the fire “a terrible tragedy” and promised a “thorough and methodical investigation.” She said the main focus for now was on recovering victims and consoling survivors.
“I met with a roomful of people who had loved ones that are missing,” Schaaf said. “It is painful to tell them it will be a considerable amount of time before we get the information they deserve.”
A makeshift memorial with flowers appeared nearby on a fence, near the fire scene. Monica Rocha, 25, lives nearby and came to hang flowers. She said she had visited the building a year ago with a friend.
“It was weird because we were walking through it with my friend and wewere like, ‘This is a tinderbox.’ ... Wewere, like, this isn’t safe. This could go down so easily,” Rocha said.
She described the building as a “maze of wooden things and mannequins — it looked like a madhouse.”
The fire chief said the scope of Friday night’s fire was only just beginning to be fathomed, andthat it represented a tragedy for many families.
“It’s going to hit the city, it’s going to hit our organization, to have an incident of this type, of this magnitude,” she said. “It’s just going to be hard on everyone.”