Massive fire at Oakland "Ghost Ship"

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There was a massive fire in a wooden building that was built like a maze and was full of a bunch of junk, and it looks like at least 33 people died, largely because they couldn't get out. A number are still missing.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/05/us/ca ... warehouse/

The operator of the place mourned the loss of his life's work, without mentioning a word of the victims:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2898336

More on the man behind ghost ship:

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/04/o ... host-ship/

I have a feeling that the District Attorney and the police are going to be looking to make Almena eat his words.

Almena clarifies his comments:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... 3444f35daf

I was wondering when somebody would bring this up. I've been following this event ever since it broke Saturday morning. I actually went to the Ghost Ship home page, which has likely been deleted by now, and the handful of pix published by the MSM don't do justice to how crammed full of weird junk it was, and the vast majority of it was old, dry wood.

All sorts of statues of Hindu gods is the thing that sticks in my mind. The master tenant was apparently obsessed with Hinduism and collected tons of Hindu god statues. I know that several people have stated that the main entryway was full of these gods, which gave the false impression that the building was full of positive energy, when it was in fact the opposite.

Then there was the rotting Victorian furniture, at least five dilapidated travel trailers that were rented out-in one case a trailer had the roof ripped off and replaced with wood, zillions of old "DJ speakers" that of course had baffles made out of dried out particleboard, old Victorian upright pianos used as room dividers, and much more.

The overall impression I got was that the place had a very bizarre vibe, like a battleground between good and evil, and that it would eventually be destroyed.

This Almena guy apparently is a real weirdo, and his "wife" has a drug problem, and their kids are neglected. I think that ultimately, if they can catch him alive, he's gonna go to prison for quite a while.

Its website is still up:

http://www.oaklandghostship.com/

I found this photograph striking, where the electrical wiring here seemed to double as decoration:

Since the whole setup was illegal, they were stealing electricity from the auto shop next door, and conveying it via that tangle of Home Depot-style cheap electrical extension cords. Every so often they'd trip a breaker at the auto shop, and after enough of waiting until Monday to sneak into the shop and reset the breakers, they finally jackhammered a hole in the second story wall.

The master tenant kept promising improvements but was apparently keeping the cash for himself, and the landlord is a wealthy businessman who obviously lived somewhere else and simply cashed Almena's checks, no questions asked.

On top of all that, they were apparently using one of those cheap "camper" style propane water heaters that sell on ebay for $100 to run a shower, and hooked it to a "gas station" style 20 gallon tank. The much-mentioned pallet stairway was built because the actual stairs to the second floor had been swallowed by a tangle of extension cords.

According to today's New York Times, the local fire department has a working theory that involves an aging refrigerator that was recently plugged in in one of the living nooks in the back of the first floor. Some of those old fridges suck up massive amounts of juice, and in addition a lot of them are so dangerous due to age that most thrift stores won't take them.

A horrible loss of young life.
My daughter lived in the Bay Area for years and had attended parties/raves in buildings like this.She mentioned it's not something she would do now,she described the places as death traps with no exits and clutter everywhere.
Part of the problem is the lack of affordable housing in the area.For many young artists it's a choice of sleeping on the street or living in a place like this.

When I lived in SF 20+ years ago, the city was cheaper and artists were able to find semi-reasonable accommodations. Yes, there were squats, but a lot of the squats ran a pretty tight ship.

For example, I heard that the inhabitants of one squat got fed up with a certain "tenant" who was high on dope all the time, and his space attracted vermin. So, one night when he was getting trashed, they grabbed shovels and threw all his junk out a second floor window onto the sidewalk below, and when he came back the next morning they pointed to the pile on the sidewalk and told him to buzz off. I can't imagine anything like that happening today, with this new generation.

Creative types have been completely thrown out of SF due to gentrification, so they've fled to Oakland, a former industrial city that has tons of these vacant warehouses that once held factories but now have no real use, so the owners rent them out to guys like Almena and tell the city that the spaces are "storage". I'm surprised that the warehouse squats don't blow up more often.

A lot of these youth exist on society's margins as it is, they are gender-fluid/genderqueer and/or nonwhite, and modern American culture doesn't value creativity, so the kids make sacrifices in order to live in welcoming ("safe") areas.

Updates:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/offi ... e-44028595

This to me was the most heartbreaking:

Apparently many of the dead were found in groups, it appeared as if they tried to comfort each other as they were literally being roasted alive. This morning, local news is reporting that 100% of the building has been searched, and the final death toll is 36. That's far lower than many feared, but still awful. I hope Almena goes to prison for a long long time.