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Oakland warehouse party fire leaves at least nine dead, reports say Oakland warehouse party fire leaves at least nine dead, fire chief says Oakland warehouse party fire leaves at least nine dead, fire chief says
(about 1 hour later)
At least nine people were dead and 13 missing after a fire broke out during a party in a warehouse in Oakland, California, local media reported on Saturday, quoting city fire officials. At least nine people were dead and 25 unaccounted for after a large fire broke out during a party in a warehouse in Oakland, the city’s fire chief told reporters on Saturday.
The building in the Fruitvale district housed units where people lived and worked, and it had no sprinkler system, fire chief Teresa Deloach-Reed told the East Bay Times newspaper. “There is a large majority of that building that has not been searched,” Teresa Deloach-Reed told reporters at an early morning press conference.
At least 9 dead, many missing in fire at Oakland party https://t.co/dAARq8OixX pic.twitter.com/f0nYJuwMtT Deloach-Reed said the building was “huge” and that its roof had collapsed, frustrating initial efforts to look for injured people and recover remains.
Oakland police officer G Plasencia told the Associated Press the fire department responded about 11.30pm on Friday and that firefighters were still on the scene early Saturday morning. Oakland firefighters tweeted video of the fire erupting through the roof. “We are hoping that the number nine is what there is and that there are no more,” she said, referring to those confirmed killed. “But we have not done a complete search of the building.”
More follows… The chief said police did not know how the fire started. An official with the fire investigation unit told the Guardian he could not confirm the number of killed or missing.
“The investigation is very fresh at this time,” he said.
The warehouse, in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, housed studios and workplaces. A Facebook page for the party, billed as the Golden Donna 100% Silk 2016 West Coast Tour, showed 192 people planned to attend a performance by Golden Donna, a electronic music act.
On the page, a fire inspector and friends and family of attendees tried to contact each other to account for the missing people.
The fire began at about 11.30pm on Friday night, police officials said. Oakland firefighters tweeted video of flames bursting through the roof as they struggled to contain them. They said about 50 people were inside, according to local KTVU-TV news. Deloach-Reed said the building had no sprinkler system, the East Bay Times reported.
“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 and suffered minor burns, 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.” The site reported that
More than 50 firefighters worked for hours to stop the fire. Battalion chief Lisa Baker told the Mercury News that teams had tried to extinguish flames inside the building until structural collapses forced them back outside.
The fire was not under control until after 4.30am local time,.