At Least 24 Dead In Oakland Warehouse Party Fire

05 Dec, 2016

Doomed partygoers trapped on the second floor of a crudely converted warehouse screamed, “Help us! Help us!” as one of the deadliest structure fires in Oakland’s history ripped through a tinderbox of makeshift living spaces and a labyrinth cluttered with art late Friday night, killing at least two dozen people and possibly more.

On Sunday morning, Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly confirmed that they have “24 deceased victims of this fire.”

“We anticipate the number of victims will rise,” Kelly said.

The blaze broke out at an electronic music party at a Fruitvale district live-work space occupied by an arts collective, and firefighters late Saturday were combing through the burned building in search of victims — a process they say may take 48 hours and require bulldozers and cadaver dogs.

Dozens of people waited for news about their loved ones late Saturday night at the coroner’s office.

“It’s like waiting for your name to be called, and if your name is called, it’s going to be the worst day of your life,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said. “It’s very tense in there.”

As the horrific scene unfolded Friday night, people banged on windows when they couldn’t escape down the main path to safety: a steep, rickety staircase cobbled together with wooden pallets and plywood.

Survivors described a chaotic scene of people desperately trying to help their friends but overcome by fire and smoke.

“It was too hot, too much smoke, I had to get out of there,” said Bob Mule, a photographer and artist who lives in the building and who suffered minor burns. “I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work.”

When he escaped, he could see someone calling for help from the second-floor window, and tried to get a ladder, “but they jumped out the window.”

The building known as the “Ghost Ship”  was zoned as a warehouse but had been the subject of a number of complaints about blight and illegal structures inside. On Saturday, city officials acknowledged that inspectors had knocked on the door of the warehouse two weeks ago but left when no one answered.

Outside the smoldering structure Saturday, Oakland police asked for descriptions of tattoos and piercings to help identify the nine bodies removed from the building Saturday as well as another two dozen or more who remain missing, including college students, artists and musicians attending a dance party upstairs. A 10th body had been found as of early Sunday, according to media reports.

It took about four hours to bring the blaze under control; at one point, the roof collapsed. The building had no sprinklers, Oakland fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said, and crews did not hear any smoke detectors going off when they arrived.

“We still have to do a more thorough search of the building, and we don’t know the potential number of other victims,” Reed said. No firefighters were reported injured while battling the blaze.

Kelly said emergency responders were prepared Saturday night for a “mass casualty event” that could involve “several dozen fatalities.” He also said that “several dozen” people who were initially reported missing have since been located and are safe.

The plan is to “disassemble the building piece by piece and place the debris into bins,” Kelly said. Heavy equipment could be seen and heard working on the building into Saturday evening.

Authorities were bringing in bulldozers, excavators, cadaver dogs and remote control equipment to find bodies buried beneath a collapsed second floor and roof and hidden within a clutter of pianos, camping trailers, artwork and old furniture.

“It’s very bad wreckage, twisted debris. It’s like a maze: wires, beams, wood,” Kelly said. “It’s all fallen on top of each other. There are places and crevices we can’t get in to.”

Like 9/11 in New York, few victims of the fire were taken to the hospital with injuries, he said. “People either made it out or didn’t make it out.”

The warehouse is one of numerous buildings in Oakland that have been illegally converted into artists collectives that have not been properly inspected, according to City Councilman Noel Gallo. Still, young hipsters looking for cheap, creative communities seek them out to survive in a city where rents are skyrocketing to accommodate an influx of highly paid tech workers.

The “Ghost Ship” was under investigation by city building inspectors just weeks ago amid reports of blight and illegal structures inside. When they knocked on the door to get inside the building Nov. 17, however, no one answered, so they left, according to city officials.

The building is owned by Chor N. Ng, of Oakland, but former residents say Derick Alemany and his wife, Micah, were raising three young children there, although they weren’t in the building when the fire broke out. The couple were the creative force behind the labyrinthine menagerie and collected monthly rent from other artists of between $300 and $600. They held dance parties with live electronic music and charged at the door to help raise money for rent.

EastBay Times

Image CNN twitter

Mentioned In This Post: