OAKLAND — As officials neared the end of their search for victims inside the Oakland warehouse where a fire claimed 36 lives, investigators began to focus on a swath of the gutted building that contained several electrical appliances, though they still can’t say what caused the fast-moving blaze to erupt inside what denizens called the Ghost Ship.
Their search through the rubble of the building was slowed because of a wall listing precariously, putting crews at risk inside the blackened shell of the two-story warehouse in the city’s Fruitvale district. With 90 percent of the building searched by late Tuesday afternoon, officials were cautiously hopeful that no more bodies would be found.
“I don’t anticipate (the number) going up,” Oakland fire Battalion Chief Robert Lipp said. “One area has potential but otherwise no. We’re hoping we don’t find any more bodies.”
Still, they weren’t ready to call the search complete.
“We are going to continue the investigation,” Oakland police Officer Johnna Watson said. “We are going to continue the process until absolutely every piece of debris is removed from this building, every area has been searched, so families and our community know there is nothing left at this location.”
Meanwhile, increasing attention has been placed on the founder of the Ghost Ship, Derick Ion Almena, 46, who has dodged reporters since the fire. On Tuesday, he made an emotional, confrontational and almost bizarre apology on NBC’s “Today Show.”
“I’m only here to say one thing, that I am incredibly sorry,” Almena said in the interview. “Everything I did was to make this a stronger more beautiful community.”
He grew agitated and defensive when hosts Matt Lauer and Tamron Hall pressed him about bearing at least some of the responsibility for the tragedy in light of complaints from residents about shoddy and unsafe conditions in the makeshift living space.
“I’m the father of this space,” he told Lauer and Hall, raising his voice. “On the night of the fire, did I know there was going to be a fire? Did I remove myself from this space and get a hotel because I wanted to avoid this, because I wanted to cast blame on other people? No.”
The death toll from the state’s deadliest structure fire since 1906 remained at 36. Authorities have identified 35 of the victims. One victim remains unidentified, and officials did not release any new names Tuesday. They have so far released the names of 17 victims, and are withholding the name of a victim who was 17.
Asked about the progress being made by investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Lipp said “they are definitely focused on a section that is a point of interest, but it’ll remain under investigation for awhile until they can be certain.”
Officials have said the fire started downstairs before quickly moving to the second floor, which collapsed, along with the roof, onto the first floor. For two days, they have been keenly interested in the center-rear section of the building where they believe the fire got going.
Jill Snyder, the special agent in charge of the ATF’s San Francisco office, said it’s too early to say for sure if a refrigerator or other appliance caused the blaze, but she agreed it was a potential source of ignition. Snyder said investigators are looking at anything electrical on the first floor of the warehouse near where the fire started. She added: “We have no indication that this was intentionally set.”
At the scene Tuesday, Oakland fire Capt. Christopher Foley said he and colleagues from multiple agencies have methodically made their way through the warehouse since the fire, and knew from the beginning of the rescue operation that they “were up against something we had never seen and hope we never see again.”
“This was of a scale unlike anything I’ve ever been to,” he said.
Tuesday, they worked to brace and secure the failing wall of the two-story structure where the deadly fire broke out during a concert Friday night, while officials from Oakland police and the Alameda County Coroner’s Office offered new details on how the people who had attended the concert died. The autopsies completed so far have found that most of the victims died of smoke inhalation.
In one particularly poignant case, Ahern confirmed that the bodies of a man and a woman were found hugging when they died. He didn’t name them.
“It appears as if the male was trying to protect the female, and had her in a fetal position, and they were trapped on one of the motor homes in the facility,” Ahern said, adding, “How touching it is to see a man trying to save a girl who he was in love with.”
According to the parents of Michela Gregory, 20, and Alex Vega, 22, the longtime couple went to the Friday night event at the Ghost Ship to dance together. Authorities released Gregory’s name late Monday, and the Vegas got a visit they were dreading about their youngest son at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday from San Bruno police.
“There were some folks that were found hugging each other,’’ David Gregory said through tears when talking about his daughter and her boyfriend. “I believe my daughter and Alex were hugging each other. They were trying to help each other, I’m sure.’’
On Tuesday, there were calls for the city to hire more building and fire inspectors in light of the fact that repeated complaints about safety and health conditions at the warehouse had gone unheeded.
“We have a shortage of staff at the enforcement level and in the fire level,” said Councilman Noel Gallo, who represents the Fruitvale district where the fire happened. “We’ve been trying to merge the building inspectors with the fire inspectors.”
Bay Area News Group reporters Erin Baldassari, Aaron Davis, Malaika Fraley, Nate Gartrell, Mark Gomez, Harry Harris, Rick Hurd, Thomas Peele, Robert Salonga and Tracy Seipel also contributed to this report.
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