Warehouse fire trapped people on second floor
ATF agent: People upstairs overcome by rising smoke.
OAKLAND, CALIF. — The fire that killed 36 people during a dance party at an Oakland warehouse grew rapidly and had trapped people on the second floor of the building by the time they became aware of it, federal investigators said Wednesday.
Jill Snyder, special agent in charge of the San Francisco office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it appears the fire started on the first floor “and the occupants were consumed by smoke before they could get out of the building.”
She said smoke traveled up the building’s stairwells, trapping the occupants on the second floor.
Also Wednesday, Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office, said the search for victims had ended. At 36, Snyder said, the death toll was the largest of any fire in the country in the last 13 years.
Sheriff ’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson said 35 of the victims had been identified.
Stories of the victims’ last minutes emerged. Kelly said some of the victims texted relatives, “I’m going to die,” and “I love you.”
Rescue crews found bodies of people “protecting each other, holding each other,” he said.
A refrigerator was a potential source of the fire, but it was too soon to say for sure, Snyder said.
“We have no indication that this was intentionally set,” she said.
It could take several weeks until authorities determine the cause of the blaze.
The city of Oakland has begun releasing administrative records concerning the warehouse, known as the Ghost Ship. So far, they reveal at least three prior complaints against the warehouse.
Those complaints include a report of illegal construction of a house or structure in October 2014; a report of construction materials, including pallets, blocking the sidewalk in September 2014; and a report that the lot adjacent to the warehouse was being used for parking and as a homeless encampment in November 2005. The complaints were all lodged against the 10,000-squarefoot warehouse, which is owned by Chor N. Ng, the city said.
Officials say there are no open complaints against the warehouse, which was permitted only for commercial use, not for residential use or public assembly.
Mayor Libby Schaaf said the city plans to continue to release details and documents regarding the building’s 30 years of permitting and complaints.
Officials have said the city had opened an investigation into possible code violations, and an inspector had visited the warehouse but never went inside.
“The administration has to tell us, well, what happened to the code inspector? Why did he just knock on the door and not pursue?” said City Councilman Noel Gallo.
Zac Unger, vice president of the local firefighters union, said the fire marshal’s inspection unit has been understaffed for years, but a more aggressive office would have looked for city code violations and hazards in the past.
“H a d a f i r e i n s p e c t o r walked into that building and seen the conditions in there, they would have shut the place down,” Unger said.