[Grampa Dave]

First of sorry to hear that this awful event happened.

You posted the probable reality:

My guess: Old warehouse. Probably never upgraded the old wiring, and had an overloaded electrical system.

My second guess freebasing drugs.”

Also, probably no fire extinguishers or fire sprinkler systems.

Northern coastal California counties, Western Oregon and Washington have a lot of these so called art havens. They were factories, warehouses and sometimes old schools. They were abandoned and later emerged as places like this one, meeting places and places of free trade.

We avoid these places because of the potential of severe disasters like this one happening when you are there.

[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.

[forgotten man]

IIRC Jerry Brown lived in a converted warehouse when he was mayor of Oakland. Did he encourage other people to use old converted warehouse space for non warehouse purposes?

[editor-surveyor]

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>> “Just last month city officials cited the owner of the warehouse and had launched an investigation into whether the interior structure was illegal” <<

>> “We avoid these places...” << - Good call!
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