Oakland police responded to earlier party at Ghost Ship, but took no action before deadly fire
In the two years leading up to the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland that killed 36 people, police were repeatedly called to the unpermitted live-work warehouse for reports of theft, fighting, threats and guns, as well as a “rave” party that ended with a frightened person saying people were barricaded inside in the middle of the night, newly released city records show.
The documents raise further questions about why the city did not step in before the Dec. 2 inferno in the Fruitvale neighborhood, which trapped guests at an electronic music event that had been advertised on Facebook and has spurred investigations and lawsuits as well as soul-searching over Oakland’s underground warehouse culture.
An officer took a report, offered to do a security sweep and gave the woman a resource card that had information on getting a restraining order, records show.
The accounts were included in more than 600 pages of records released by Oakland detailing visits by police officers, firefighters, building inspectors and public works staffers to the Ghost Ship warehouse and its neighboring buildings before the two-story structure burned down.
Echoing prior statements by city officials, none of the documents describe a formal inspection of the premises to ensure it was safe and up to code.
The families’ attorneys, calling the building a “death trap,” plan to seek damages against Oakland as well, although state law provides a liability shield for local governments for failing to conduct building inspections.
In December, The Chronicle reported that city officials could not find any records that the department had ever checked the converted warehouse, despite a state mandate to inspect commercial properties once a year.
Most of the fire records released Wednesday pertained to the department’s all-hands response to the fire, including initial attempts at an “aggressive interior attack” before thick black smoke and heat forced firefighters to battle the flames defensively.
[...] Jill Snyder, the special agent who heads the San Francisco division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the building’s “electrical system is part of the analysis.”
People familiar with the building described a tangle of extension cords powering living and work areas, propane tanks used to heat an improvised shower and exposed wires covering a back staircase.