http://sfist.com/2016/12/03/nine_dead_25_unaccounted_for_after.php
Just watching this report on the local news. I sure hope that most of those unaccounted for folks got out and left the area. Such a sad sad thing in a wonderful city that has had far too many troubles through the years.
Horrific.
Just tragic.
Was just about to start a thread. So sad!! The building is unsafe to enter… more bodies are expected to be found inside.
I cannot post the link but there is a spreadsheet going around with people who are missing and who can be contacted if the person is located. If anyone wants it, please PM me.
The number authorities are giving to call for information is:
510-382-3000
They are also begging people NOT to call hospitals so as to not tie up the phone lines.
I looked at the spreadsheet. I was relieved to not see names of any of my daughters’ friends but heartbroken at the loss of people we don’t know.
Every time something like this happens I wonder if people will continue to pooh-pooh fire codes because they find them expensive and/or inconvenient.
No sprinklers. Illegal staircase to illegal second floor.
last week, when we were visiting S, there was one evening when I said I kept smelling something odd, as if something was cooking. I went into the kitchen a couple times to check. Then I realized that it seemed stronger in the sitting area., and started looking around. An upholstered chair had pushed up just enough against an Ikea floor lamp with a tubular paper shade so that the lightbulb had burned through the shade and was scorching a spot on the back of the chair. It was blackened. If I hadn’t found it, the chair could have started to seriously smolder during the night and we could all have been overcome by fumes. It was frightening.
The next day we adjusted the shades and taped them in place so that they could not accidentally touch the bulbs.
I have to remember to ask S to check the batteries in the smoke detectors. Their bedroom is in sort of a loft, and if the lower floor was burning they could get out a window, but there would be a 2 storey drop. Six young people died in an apartment fire here last year in similar circumstances. It is sobering.
I can’t smell, so have to depend on others to smell danger for me. When I can smell things, they’re really in need of prompt attention!
The owner should be charged with murder.
Our son shares a place in Oakland near Lake Merritt. Of course he didn’t let us know he was safe after this horrific incident. Thankfully he answered when we called him. Prayers for the victims, their families and loved ones.
Did the owner know that people were living there illegally? It was a warehouse.
(Insert rant about restrictive zoning and planning preventing adequate housing from being built.)
@consolation Can your son replace the bulbs with ones that don’t get hot?
This is such a horrible tragedy and sadly preventable, at least in its scope. Fire codes are national. This was a warehouse that may have been illegally used as a residence but I’ve seen legit residences that didn’t have proper means of egress for all bedrooms and real estate agents will blithely say, “oh, it has a door and a closet so it’s a bedroom”. NO! It must have another means of egress, usually an operable window, that is big enough for a firefighter to get through and where the sill is not more than 4’ above the floor, and without immovable “security bars” outside of it.
Good for your nose and your persistence @Consolation!
A friend of mine came home late one night and smelled something weird and electrical outside but he didn’t know what it was or recognize it as the beginnings of a fire. Well, the fire happened and while no human was hurt, 4 apartments were destroyed and 3 pets lost their lives. If you smell something off, call someone professional! It can’t hurt.
I had to put in an egress window when we finished the basement to pass inspection. Cost $5k but worth it for peace of mind when S was down there with friends.
look at what the self absorbed, sociopathic guy behind the rave had to say!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3998304/Fury-operator-artist-enclave-34-died-fire.html
And others apparently are being apologists for him. “Maybe he didn’t know that people had died.” Yeah right.
Horrible tragedy. Was just out there a week ago. People have checked in as safe on the Facebook page.
@Madison85 Thank you, that is a good idea. I hadn’t thought of that. Right now they have conventional bulbs in them.