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Multiple Deaths Are Reported at Warehouse Party in Oakland At Least 9 Are Dead After Fire at Warehouse Party in Oakland
(about 2 hours later)
Emergency responders have found multiple people dead at the scene of a fire that broke out at a warehouse hosting an electronic music party on Friday night in Oakland, Calif., the police said, as fears grew that the death toll could rise. OAKLAND, Calif. — At least nine people were dead and emergency responders were searching for at least a dozen more in the ashes of a fire that broke out at a converted warehouse hosting an electronic music party on Friday night, the authorities here said.
Chief Teresa Deloach Reed of the Oakland Fire Department told reporters at the scene that there were at least nine dead. The emergency call for the fire in the Fruitvale neighborhood came in around 11:30 p.m., officials said. Responders arrived to find the small warehouse filled with heavy smoke and flames. The bodies were found on the second floor of the building, Chief Teresa Deloach Reed of the Oakland Fire Department said on Saturday.
The emergency call for the fire in the Fruitvale neighborhood came in around 11:30 p.m., the Oakland Police Department said. “In my career of 30 years, I haven’t experienced something of this magnitude,” Chief Deloach Reed said.
The warehouse at 1305 31st Avenue was hosting a party that started at 9 p.m. and was scheduled to last until 4 a.m., according to a Facebook page for the event. The building had been converted into an artist’s studio and was cluttered with furniture, statues and mannequins, she said. A makeshift staircase connected the first and second floors.
On the page, friends and family members posted the names of more than a dozen people, including many of the artists and performers, who they said were missing as of early Saturday morning. The warehouse was hosting a party that was scheduled to last until 4 a.m., and featured multiple electronic musicians, producers and performers, as well as visual projections, according to a Facebook page for the event. “SECRET EAST OAKLAND LOCATION ANNOUNCED DAY OF SHOW,” the page said. More than 200 people had said they planned to attend the event.
“Hi, I am here with the fire inspector going through the list of missing names of missing/safe,” wrote one woman. “I am requesting that you only post in this thread their name and missing or safe next to it.” On Saturday, the page had been turned into a hub for friends and family members to post the names of the missing, which included many of the artists and performers. “Hi, I am here with the fire inspector going through the list of missing names of missing/safe,” wrote one woman. “I am requesting that you only post in this thread their name and missing or safe next to it.”
A spreadsheet distributed on the site listed identifying information — age, height, weight, hair color, tattoos — and contact numbers for many of those who were unaccounted for.
Investigators continued to search the building on Saturday morning, its graffiti-marked facade blackened by smoke.
Chief Deloach Reed said there were “no reports of smoke alarms going off.” At least two fire extinguishers were located inside, she said.
Oakland is home to a community of artists who have flocked to more affordable areas like Fruitvale and to other cities in the East Bay Area, as rents in San Francisco have skyrocketed.