Fire at warehouse trapped people on second floor

The East Bay Times reports (http://bit.ly/2hdt8ol ) Alt-rock favorites Primus, ambient-music act Tycho and indie-pop champ Tune-Yards are among the acts set to perform at Oakland United: A Benefit Supporting Oakland Fire Relief. Acquaintances and local authorities described repeatedly confronting Almena about what they saw as unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the warehouse.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was on the defensive Wednesday after it was discovered building inspectors hadn’t been inside the Ghost Ship warehouse for 30 years. Most of the victims were found on the second floor, according to Reed.

A person who was there at the time, but declined to be named for fear of retribution, said the officers’ search took them into parts of the building where people were clearly residing, including the bathroom and shower area as well as the kitchen, which was full of food and dishes.

She has held strategy sessions with other artists and helped write an open letter urging the city to protect “the vital artistic fabric of Oakland” by making buildings safe and not throwing artists out on the street.

“We are devastated by the recent Oakland fire that claimed so many lives and affected so many others”, Curry said. In the records made public Wednesday, the city redacted the names of inspectors who had been to the warehouse, as well as the resident who filed a complaint.

Snyder reiterated that investigators were examining a refrigerator and other possibilities as a potential source of the fire but had not reached any conclusions.

A graduate of a high school in our area was one of the 36 people killed in the Oakland Warehouse fire. “The analysis of data and interviews may take several weeks”. Bandziulis, a photographer, said she now expects more scrutiny on places like hers, though she also believes landlords need to use this tragedy to make sure their spaces are safe, regardless of whether they’re permitted or not.

Gallo cited budget cuts that resulted in layoffs of firefighters, fire marshals, building inspectors and police officers in the wake of the financial crisis as one reason for the apparent lack of scrutiny.

She says smoke went up the stairwells to the second floor.

The warehouses exist under the radar, and city officials sometimes ignore them despite frequent violations of fire and residential safety codes.

Gassan’s mother said her son didn’t live in the building, but was at the party with his fiancée, who also died in that deadly fire in California. In rare situations, this contributes to the hazardous irresponsibility that led to the events of last Friday.

Numerous 10 complaints were directed at the lot, pointing to a “ton of garbage piling up on the property” as well as the “illegal interior building structure” at the warehouse, according to city records released Tuesday. Red Gate, too, has developed emergency plans including ensuring exits are always clear, for example, and the building meets code. The records say “a ton of garbage [is] piling up on the property”, including “hazardous” trash.

But for the fourth straight day, the city went into lockdown mode over Fire Department documents that could show when fire inspectors were last at the warehouse. He moved previous year out of his 3-bedroom Oakland apartment when the rent went from $1,800 per month to $3,700. The investigation is ongoing, the city said.

Some of those agencies had been told or could have seen for themselves that the family of five and their dozens of artist tenants were living in a warehouse that had no permit to operate as a living space and allegedly had no proper kitchen, electricity, adequate fire exits or solid stairs.

“They’re my children. They’re my friends”.

“We’ve maintained 100 percent occupancy, and if I had 30 more units, I could probably rent those fairly easy”, Carlson said. Almena told ABC affiliate KGO on Sunday.

To date, a fundraiser for the Oakland fire victims and their families has raised over $452,000.