Oakland warehouse fire: Death toll rises further, criminal investigation launched

They say it was right underneath where the dance floor was during the party at Ghost Ship warehouse Friday.

Boone said she had just received a tour of the property and stepped outside when someone yelled, “Fire!” They say they’re studying an area where there is twisted steel and they see where the fire spread from there. The fire is one of the country’s deadliest in recent years, according to NBC.

Drayton said she hoped the slow, arduous work to reach victim remains would continue Monday afternoon.

The fire has raised questions about whether building code violations might have been a factor.

Oakland Police Department spokeswoman Johnna Watson didn’t immediately return calls for comment on Monday.

A fireman walks by the fire-ravaged warehouse in Oakland where at least 36 people have died. One resident told CNN that at least 20 people were living there.

The space in Oakland seems to have been especially vulnerable: it was a warehouse that had been converted into a makeshift nightclub and labyrinth of artist studios spread across two floors connected by a rickety staircase made of wooden pallets.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued a separate statement calling the fire “an enormous tragedy”. Schaaf said she was not authorized to say if a criminal probe was under way.

Fire Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed called the building, which also housed several other units where people worked and lived, “huge” and said authorities had not yet searched the entire structure.

Three of the boys had been in the cramped and dark building, Thomas said, but one got separated from them just before someone yelled, “Fire!” An inspector who went to the premises couldn’t get inside, said Darin Ranelletti, of the Oakland Planning Department.

His brother says his “smile and his presence changed every person that was lucky enough to feel his warmth and light”.

As it stands, this is the deadliest building fire in the U.S.in more than a decade. The Los Angeles Times has released the names of seven of the victims, with an eighth withheld because the victim was underage. Officials from Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco, where McGill attended, sent out a statement Monday confirming her death. Throughout the day hundreds of people have come here to pay their respects at a memorial.

“Whenever I could, I would to talk to (Micah Allison) to get away from him because I knew he was unsafe from day one”, he said. Laugh box, that’s how I remember him.

The publisher revealed the sad news about the 26 year old on its Facebook page on Sunday evening.