[arl295]

Pics of the interior are here

http://www.oaklandghostship.com/

it was a cluttered mess, a tinder box waiting for a spark

looks like extension cords were used as electrical wiring as well

[GreenLanternCorps]

Remind me of the Cocoanut Grove and Beverly Hills Supper Club fires.

In both cases the building were expanded and remodeled without regard to safety or codes. Fire codes were inadequate at best.

The body count in this fire was much lower, however...

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

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

[libstripper]

They posted this on their own website. It's a public document that shows the whole place was a fire trap that had been in the making for many months or years. That means any Oakland official could have just gone to their website and followed up with a walk around their premises to develop enough evidence to show there was probable cause to believe here were multiple, serious fire, electrical, and sanitation violations that should have enable the authorities to get one or more search warrants to determine was going on in the building. Clearly, they could have gotten the warrants and done the investigation long before the minimal action they took a month ago. Once again there is strong proof that one of the causes of the atrocity was gross official malfeasance.

[justlurking]

Take a close look at the right edge of this image:

Is that old electrical wiring?

[Drew68]

looks like extension cords were used as electrical wiring as well

I read the extension cords were surreptitiously hooked up to an adjacent structure, stealing power.

[Moltke]

Pics of the interior are here

I see a No Smoking sign in one of the pics. Hey, they did what they could.