Teenagers among Oakland warehouse fire victims

THE death toll from a fire that tore through a California warehouse hosting a late-night dance party has climbed to 33 as firefighters painstakingly comb through the rubble for others believed to still be missing – and made the grim announcement that teenagers were among the dead.

The Oakland building, known as the “Ghost Ship”, had been carved into artist studios and was an illegal home for a rotating cast of a dozen or more people, according to former denizens who said it was a cluttered death trap with few exits, piles of wood and a mass of electric cords.

“If you were going there for a party, you wouldn’t be aware of the maze that you have to go through to get out,” said Danielle Boudreaux, a former friend of the couple who ran the warehouse.

The death toll was expected to rise further as crews using buckets and shovels slowly made their way through the building, finding victims where they least expected them, Sergeant Ray Kelly of Alameda County sheriff’s office said.

Less than half of the charred remains of the partly-collapsed structure had been searched as of Sunday afternoon.

“When we started this investigation, if you had told us that you would have 33 victims, we wouldn’t have believed you,” Sgt Kelly said.

The victims include 17-year-olds and people from Europe and Asia aged from their teens to 30-plus. Officials have identified eight people who were killed – at least seven of them using fingerprints.

Anxious family members who feared the worst gathered at the sheriff ’s office to await word and were told they may have to provide DNA samples to help identify remains.