At least nine people were killed when a fire broke out during an electronic-music party at a converted warehouse in Oakland, California, on Friday night. About 25 people remained missing as of Saturday morning, but rescue efforts had been delayed because of concerns over safety of the building. The roof of the converted warehouse that hosted the Friday-night party had caved in, making rescue efforts difficult, according to local officials. Now drones with thermal imaging will be sent into the building to assist with the efforts.
The fire, which broke out about three miles from downtown Oakland, was first reported at 11:30 p.m. on Friday night. More than 70 firefighters battled the blaze, although they largely had to do so from outside the building, because the fire was too hot and intense inside. It took almost four hours to get the fire under control.
“We still have to do a more thorough search of the building and we don’t know the potential number of other victims,” Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said. Most of the nine bodies were found on the second floor, which people could apparently get to through what was a “makeshift stairwell.” That stairwell will likely be a particular focus of any investigations into what led up to the tragedy.
“One of the issues was that leading up to the second floor there was only one way up and down,” the fire chief told reporters. “It was my understanding that the stairwell was kind of makeshift, that they put it together with pallets.”
The building, which is an artists’ collective, didn’t have any sprinklers, and firefighters didn’t hear any smoke detectors going off when they arrived at the scene, the fire chief said. Rescue operations were also complicated by the sheer amount of stuff around. “It filled end-to-end with furniture, whatnot, collections,” Deloach Reed said. “It was like a maze almost.”
There also may not have been any working fire extinguishers. “It was too hot, too much smoke, I had to get out of there,” Bob Mule, a photographer and artist who lives at the building told the East Bay Times. “I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work.”
As rescue operations continued, the party’s Facebook page has become a hub of information for people trying to find out whether their loved ones are safe.
