Desperate families and friends of party-goers missing after huge Oakland warehouse blaze killed up

Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | December 3, 2016 | Jenny Stanton

[Cecily]

At least nine people died in a massive fire that destroyed a northern California warehouse that was an artist collective during an electronic music party early Saturday morning and officials said the building had no sprinkler system or working smoke detectors.

Fire Chief Teresa Deloche-Reed said that at least another 25 people are still unaccounted for after the deadly blaze started around 11:30pm in the 1300 block of 31st Avenue during an event advertised as 'Rave Cave' featuring musician Golden Donna's 100% Silk West Coast tour.

'We still have to do a more thorough search of the building and we don't know the potential number of other victims,' Deloche-Reed said.

'In my career of 30 years, I haven't experienced something of this magnitude.'

[Calvin Locke]

Cocoanut Grove? Try the White Snake flambe of 2003 as being a tad bit more recent:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4xaWMKBlw4

[CGASMIA68]

Lovely.Palets make great BonFires and are good for stacking fire wood..Stairs to the 2nd floor of an abandon warehouse, not so much

[trisham]

Both were terrible fires, but the Cocoanut Grove fire resulted in the deaths of 492 people, while in the Station nightclub fire 100 people died. Tragic, regardless.

[null and void]

This is a big deal. Is this being reported elsewhere?

Local radio in Reno is covering it. Not as thoroughly as The Daily Mail...

[bobby.223]

Lol! That punk Tommy Vietor kid will always have that idiot ‘dude’ associated with him!

[Calvin Locke]

True, but the Cocoanut Grove set standards to avoid/minimize such tragedies, and greed, as in RI, and liberals that know better than the rest of us, as in Oakland, resulted from the failure to heed the lessons of Cocoanut Grove.

[867V309]

The Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942. 492 people dead. The worst such fire in American history.

I read a book about that fire when I was in my teens many years ago. Couldn't sleep for a month.

[SIDENET]

Many pictures of the missing at the link. Must have been an interesting gathering.....

I took a look at the pics.

Made me think of the Zion dance scene in Matrix Reloaded. Incidentally, that was the precise point that I decided to turn off the DVD player and end my watching of that terrible movie. YUCK.

[867V309]

Compared to Cocoanut Grove, the Great White fire was a picnic.

[Calvin Locke]

One of my first jobs out of school was working in a converted warehouse of an old textile mill. It was upgraded to building code for wiring and fire, and the elevator capacity was limited by blocking off the floor space.

In my early 20s, it was easier to take the stairs.

[higgmeister]

“Another reason to avoid Oakland”

Another asinine statement from someone who doesn’t know jack. I just picked up our daughter who lives in downtown Oakland about 20 blocks from the fire so she could have lunch with her mother. While there are places in East Oakland that are terrible (mostly black and ME trash), downtown Oakland is very clean and modern and has no crime of any consequence.

Probably not so much. How many Hillary voters live there?

[Grampa Dave]

That warehouse was upgraded to code.

The one with the terrible fire probably wasn’t up to code decades ago.

Thanks for your interesting personal story.

[deport]

Authorities said they were preparing to deal with dozens of fatalities after a fire raced through a converted warehouse crowded with people attending a Friday night concert, officials said.

Nine bodies have been recovered, but Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said officials were prepared for up to 40 fatalities.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-92038303/

*****

At least nine people died and authorities said they feared the toll could rise as high as 40 in a fire that broke out during a rave at a converted warehouse in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Oakland fire chief Teresa Deloche-Reed said at least another 25 people were unaccounted for as of Saturday morning and authorities were working to verify who was in the cluttered warehouse when the fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. Friday.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-report-casualties-fire-warehouse-party-43947050
9 Killed in Oakland Warehouse Fire, Dozens More Feared Dead

[trisham]

Stupidity, too. The ceiling in the Station nightclub was too low and not flame-retardant. The wall covering was also flammable.

There was also no sprinkler system in the rather small venue of 4,000+ square feet as it was built in 1946 and deemed exempt. It was a “perfect storm” of a devastating fire.

[Deo volente]

Oakland used to have a newspaper, the Tribune.

It recently folded and was merged into the East Bay Times, which covers Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

[mylife]

Like yer tagline

Bupkis!

[SteveH]

??? Downtown oakland has plenty of crime. Someone is living in a bubble.

[trisham]

Thank you!

[deport]

Between 50 and 100 people were believed to have been at the party when the fire started,
Deloche-Reed said. It was not immediately clear what started the fire, but there did not
appear to be sprinklers in the building, she said.

[Patriot Babe]

My medical doctor has her office in a building where the doors swing out but there is no doorknob on the outside where someone can come in. Also the door is camouflage like the rest of the building which I found impressive.