Oakland Warehouse Fire Leaves Artist Community Reeling

First Posted: Dec 05, 2016 03:04 AM EST
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Oakland's collections of warehouses are a place for artists to live, paint and perform. They are a refuge for the group with interiors that can provide an oasis for the already struggling group in a region of sky-high costs.

Unfortunately, the cheap and creative spaces are not exactly the safest area to be in, especially considering how often they look the other way with regard to building code violations -- and it is with the same passiveness that led to the a fire that ripped apart a warehouse known as the Ghost Ship, killing over 30 people that are attending a concert on its second floor. ABC News reported that some of the bodies were of teens who are 17 years old or even younger.

Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office already anticipated that the number of victims will rise, and the search effort is said to last for days. Authorities are already asking families with missing loved ones to preserve DNA samples in order to confirm identities of those who died in the blaze.

Preliminary investigations showed that the blaze was caused by an electrical fire as power went out inside the building when the fire began. The flames eventually blocked the building's only exit, making it difficult for those inside to get out.

The fire also seems to provoke a response from local officials. A report from The Los Angeles Times noted that once city officials found the code violations regarding the Ghost Ship, it should have been shut down -- and now it seems that the fire could shut down the whole bunch of warehouses -- a tragedy that, under the right circumstances, would not necessarily have happened.

Sgt. Kelly asked the public to be patient as authorities look into the cause of the fire, and as the search for the dead continues. The Oakland Fire Department is currently working with a variety of agencies in lieu of the tragedy, including the Alameda County Sheriff's Department, the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County Search and Rescue and the American Red Cross.

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