This is complicated and it is going to take us time to do the meth methodical, thorough investigation these families deserve. And live again over the scene. Sky 7 showing you the burned out converted warehouse that was permitted to be a warehouse and not permitted for people to live there. But apparently that was going on. And thats going to be part of the post fire investigation. Crews say theyll remain on the scene for the next 48 hours as the grim task of recovering and identifying victims gets underway. Were staying with the news and bringing you latest information as its breaking news affecting our community. A quick programming note. World news is airing on 715 and over the air on digital channel 7. 2 on the abc 7 news app, as well. You can download for free. Comcast 715 and the other channels. City officials are making it clear theyre doing Everything Possible to identify the victims and contact their loved ones. But they to be realistic with, they said it could take days. Its more important to notify families and have them know the information before we then go public with it. So the respect and decency we have for people and loved ones. We know we have victims here who have families outside the bay area. Outside of the state. And possibly outside of our country. So we have a lot of people that we need to reach out to. That is going to be timely. Identification of people is going to be very, very difficult. People will not have identification and answers for up to 48 hours. It could take us days to identify people based on the level of remains that we have. We know that fingerprints being sent out now for analysis of the four people who have been pulled so far. Lets go to abc 7 News Reporter matt keller. Eric, they resumed operations here going inside and bringing out more victims. They have four victims who have been brought from that building. But its been a very difficult task. They had to stop for several hours because the structure unsound and firefighters had to make sure it was safe for the coroners officer to go in. Now theyre in there working on it. What theyre doing is excavating and bringing excavators and bulldozers, a crane. Theyll knock a hole into the building on the west side of this building because the entrance is too difficult to get into. Thatll be a big operation and the concern going through when there are so many victims inside and so many bodies going in. They said theyre going to take everything slowly. As you heard 48 hours theyre planning on being here at least until monday morning. Theyll be doing this methodically. Theyll make sure that the people who go in are safe and the victims inside are respected and theyre able to bring them out safely and help them get identified once theyre out and do the fingerprints and try to get them identified that way. Are there markings, piercings, tattoos, et. Cetera. Earlier today i had an interesting interview with district 5 City Council Member here. I asked him if the city should be held accountable because they knew about the violations at the building. They knew what was going on in the building. They knew about the parties at the ghost shipbuilding. He said, yes. The city should be accountable including himself. He got emotional when he talking about the impact of the neighborhood. Beyond what the citys responsibility and what it may be. Being a resident of this neighborhood, this is obviously something that is devastating everybody around here. Absolutely. You know, when i hear there was 17yearolds, 18yearolds that lost their life took b. A. R. T. To get here and stood on the corner crying because they lost their friends. They went to the party because it was posted online. They ran down the stairs because the smoke and they stood there crying because their friends were gone. As simple as that. Reporter council member, are you happy with the status of the investigation or do you think the city needs to do more to prevent this sort of thing . You know, i think it comes down to protecting our families and knowing the fact we allow investors and people that come in and abuse the settings we have. No Building Permits, no fire permits, no Building Permits whatsoever. And yet my kids with their degrees trying to find a place to live wind up in settings like this and yet they pay the price because theres one way in or out and they lost their lives. Thats the sad thing. Reporter this is a live look from sky 7. You can see above there. And you can see what is taking place here. The Sheriffs Department did tell us theyre working with loved ones and remaining in close contact with them as they bring victims out. They want to make it a quick process. As soon as they can identify the victims theyre notifying families right away. The families have counselling from the red cross. Theyve been praising the work of the red cross out here helping not only the Law Enforcement officers and the firefighters and helping them with food and water and other kinds of services out here, they are helping the families, as well. An interesting thing they said theyre doing, as you look at the sky 7 video. The Sheriffs Department is actually going to bring in dogs and also possibility of robotic technology. Bringing in robots and Remote Technology so they can go in this building. Its difficult to get around in this building. Beams are down. Theres water in the building. The roof collapsed on to the second floor. The second floor collapsed on to the first floor. Really, its dangerous to go inside and difficult to get around certain areas. Bringing in something that is small so they can see so they know whether or not they can move forward with some of the heavy equipment theyre going to bring in and get in there. You can expect to see the dogs out here. You can expect to see possibly the technology. The robots. Weve seen the drones out here. Theyre getting a good birds eye view from above. Theyre using all of their resources. Theyre bringing in so many different different organizations and groups to help with the investigation and help with making sure that the building is sound and doing all that with everybody. With the city workers who are already out here on the scene. So you can expect it to be busy for the next 48 hours or so. Matt, sorry for interrupting you. I have a question for you. Sunset expected around 4 51 today. Do you know will the work continue into the night . Do they have the lightening and equipment necessary to continue safely . Yes. Thats something i thought about probably an hour or two ago as the lights were going down. To make sure they had the building secure and sound. But any time youve been out of the scene of a major crime or Major Incident with the Police Department and Fire Department, they do have lightening equipment. So you can believe theyre going to have lightening equipment. They dont want to pause during the nighttime hours just because its dark. Theyre going to working through the night. You can expect them to have lights out here and all though does make it more difficult, obviously, theyll make sure theyre moving and working because they want to get it done. They now there are families waiting to hear word on whether or not their loved one is inside this building. So they know the urgency. But they want to be careful and they want to make sure that they do everything correctly. So they dont risk collapse of the building and they also dont risk running into any of the bodies inside this building. Matt, thank you so much. We appreciate your reporting. We know youll continue to ask questions and well check in with you. We have more on the investigation. We heard from the city council talk about disturbing things that people in the neighborhood knew about the building. The investigation goes on so many fronts. They want to talk to many people but what one especially derrick ion. We had video from two years ago when there were arson cases in the building. There was a case of arson, apparently. He was able to put out the flames with a garden hose. So that was done then. Of course, fast forward a couple of years now and now the place is a total damage. On his Facebook Page, derek ion wrote he runs this artist collective. Ghost ship artist collective. He also has a yoga. Everything i worked hard far is gone. My children and wife were in a hotel safe and sound. He put his kids and wife in a hotel during the rave. Now that post on his Facebook Page got a huge reaction and a negative way to a lot of people he knew. A lot of people who actually went to that collective summit. Some who live there. They said, look, you knew for years now that this was a fire hazard. In fact, the police told you two years ago it was a fire hazard. Thats what facebook says. They claim he would laugh it off when people would raise that sort of an issue. Now the most recent theory on that social media is he may have left the area. So clearly investigators want to talk to him. Ive been working Fire Department sources around the bay area because clearly those in oakland are very busy now. Ive spoken to retired and current fire investigators across the bay area. They are very frustrated by this thing. Because, you know, there were signs before, as weve heard. There were some ongoing cases about the exact same property. In fact, there was a case open as of november 14th, a couple of weeks ago. A pending investigation that was open as of last night in this exact same property for an illegal interior building structure. Now, we heard from the several news conferences here that the inspector from planning and building was not allowed in the building. So he had to delay that investigation. So he went there to check it out, and was not allowed inside. Now the other point here, that is very frustrating to fire officials is they should have had a permit for the special event. They should have had a permit for the rave. Theyve had raves there every couple of months, if you look at their website the ghost ship website. Youll see fliers for the different raves. They should have had a permit. If they try to get that permit, that would have launched a few other processes. Ever since the great white ban fire in rhode island in 2003 where 100 people died in a terrible fire. If they learned there was going to be a large gathering of people in one location, clearly the planning and building people, the Fire Department, the fire investigators would have checked out that site to see if it was safe and clearly the site was not safe because it was just this mishmash of different rooms, People Living there, youve seen in the photographs. You see the haphazard wiring, as i said earlier that sources are telling us that all indications it was not an arson fire. It looks like it was a wiring problem. Weve heard about from the eye witness that was there he smelled smoke all of a sudden. It looks like the conditions inside that place lead to that fire happening. And so clearly there were all sorts of warning signs along. And that this they tried to follow up. Perhaps they werent aggressive enough in following up on the problems we heard about at the ghost ship artist collective. You mentioned the permit for the party, which is one thing. Also, no permits for occupancy. No permits for interior construction. Exactly. Fla. They seemed to do all of those things in violation of permits. Yeah. Thats very good point. The owner is claiming through her daughter she had no idea that people were living there. I mean, it doesnt take much for an owner to show up and knock on the door and said its my building i would like to walk in. From all sides were seeing there were beds everywhere. Theres mattresses on the floor. Oftentimes there were nails sticking up. It wasnt a safe place to go and visit. But there were People Living in there. It didnt take much to figure it out that hey, man, this place, you know, might be a fire trap. All part of the investigation. Thank you very much. Were streaming the entire thing on the abc 7 news app. If you havent downloaded it already. Were pushing out the latest information to your phone. Were streaming us. You can watch us live on the alabama thiabc 7 news app. And now live coverage from Melissa Harrington live in oakland. Families of missing loved ones are gathering at that center. Reporter yeah theres a Disaster Relief team inside along with counsellors. Were at the Family Assistance Center in oakland off of east 12th street and miller avenue. Weve seen a lot of people come by, including a lot of young people. Teenagers, people in their early 20s looking for their friends who were at this event last night. I spoke with one family searching for a 22yearold from san bruno named alex vega. He was at the event with his girlfriend. Today theyre not answering phone calls or texts and their car hasnt moved since last night. Another man i spoke with was looking for his girlfriend. Now the place that burned is nicknamed ghost ship. A lot of people know that space as the art house. I was there two years ago. This is video from the story back then. An arsonist damaged the outside of the warehouse. Flames were coming in. Some artists were inside. One of them helped firefighters battle the flames with the garden hose. I remember seeing the art. There were pianos inside. Multiple pianos. A lot of stuff inside this place. Blankets. It was colorful. Very artistic. Almost like a piece of art, itself. Yes, it was there was definitely a lot inside. A lot of wood, wood beams, and you remember back then they were worried that fire would destroy some of their art and they felt lucky they were able to get out in time and make sure that the fire was put out. Of course, we know it was a much different story over night and they are still investigating the cause of this recent fire. Reporting live in oakland elissa harrington. Thank you so much. People are wondering how they can help and several others are searching for their loved ones are taking to social media. Yeah. Abc 7 News Reporter is monitoring the situation. What are you seeing . Yes. Weve seen a lot of things on social media. On twitter i want to update this thank you to every every oakland as fan for helping us support our community. Well match up to 30,000. It says oaklandbound. Theres a link to the you caring site weve been talking about throughout the day when they decided they would match up to 20,000 in donation. They fulfilled that goal. And you see the tweet theyre going to match up to 30,000. Here is another tweet ive seen in the past few moments saying the Asian Art Museum saying were sending our love to oakland in the wake of last nights oaklandfire. Our hearts go to all affected by this tragedy. As well as this from music group that i found pretty interesting. It says been in spaces like these most of our lives. Feeling for yall. Fire relief fund for victims sending out the link for folks trying to raise money for the victims. Weve seen numerous high profile people. I should note that president elect donald trump did not tweet out earlier. That was a copy cat account. You see a lot of high profile officials talking about the fire. Senator Barbara Boxer saying my heart goes out to victims of the fire and their families. We saw oakland representative barbara lee sending out a tweet. Tom story, a big time billionaire political financer sending out this tweet, as well. We saw a lot of people. Senator diane feinstein, attorney general harris. Those are the high profile people. I have seen oaklandfire is trends as well as ghostfire is trending. In has become a national story, international story. I noticed its a some european newspapers had as a front story. Its a story that will affect everyone across the country as well as internationally. Were tracking it on social media. Ill keep watching things as they develop here. Thank you. Lets get back to abc 7 News Reporter who has been tracking more information as it comes in on the building itself. Reporter a little bit earlier you had specifically asked about the efforts that the crews are going to be making to continue their work throughout the evening. Take a look. Thats a crew member from the Sheriffs Department. Hes setting up a rather large light theyre going to use so they can shine into the actual venue itself. This is one of the back walls of a building that continues a little further beyond the white portion there. Lets go ahead and show you video from sky 7 so you can get perspective of the damage that the crews are going to be going through. To give you a quick recap from the last news event we saw. Crews have found they have actually identified and removed four of the nine bodies that they quickly spotted as they made entry earlier in the day. So that means there are still four bodies they are looking to recover from inside of that venue. We have been trying to find out more information about the venue itself. Weve learned a lot from a lot of people who live around here, as well as the event going on last night. Which we understand was some sort of an underground music event that a lot of people who attended only found out about the location through social media just yesterday. At this point, investigators do not know how many people were attending that musical event, and so thats part of their investigation. Lets show you some pictures that we just compiled from google earth. These pictures show you the progression of debris over the few years that has collected outside of this warehouse space. That debris is actually it was warning sign for a lot of people who live around here. Thats why they were calling the city authorities and lodging complaints about the owners of the space and the people who are inhabiting it. You can see just from google earth how much stuff was collecting outside. At one of the earlier news conferences, a city official talked about an inspector who came by to look at the space. Yeah, we had an inspector attempt to enter the building, and at that time, was not able to secure access to the building. And so that investigation hadnt concluded it was underway. At this time, we have reports there was a party at the premises last night and such a party would have required a special permit from the city, and a special permit had not been issued. Reporter lets go ahead and show you pictures from inside of that venue so you can get an idea of just what kind of things were inside. You can see theres lots of items in there. Theres carpets and wood and all kinds of miscellaneous debris. People who know this space have described it as an artists collective. Something of a live and work space. And just a few minutes ago, my colleague with the Investigative Unit was telling you a little bit about the inspector who came out here to look at this space. That inspector came out here two weeks ago. So there were some really recent complaints coming out here live. I can tell you that at the moment the search and rescue teams from the Sheriffs Department. Theyre working on shoring up a lot of walls because of the damage from this fire. Theyre going to be making entry, actually, breaching one of the walls so they can go in and continue to sift through the debris. They can recover the five bodies theyve seen so far. And theyre also going to continue their search for any other remains they may come across as theyre continuing their search. Reporting live in oakland, abc 7 news. Thank you so much. Oakland police say most of the people inside the warehouse were young in their 20s and 30s. Golden donna is the stage name for musician joel shanhan on the 100 silk label. Some described his music as soul electric. Well show you a video on the Youtube Channel called light. Take a look at this. People have taken to the event page on facebook from last nights show as a safety check in. A place to inquire about missing loved ones. He posted a message that says joel is safe but like many people has several friends among the missing. Well take you back to the scene now. Live pictures from sky 7 hovering over the building. To give you an idea what First Responders are dealing with this. They say the first floor was sort of divided up in different spaces. People were using it as art spaces. There was a lot of material on the ground, debris, whatever you want to call it. Now imagine that sort a maze to get through. The fire caused the roof to collapse. To telescope down on thesecond floor which collapsed on to the first floor. You have trouble getting in. Trouble ingressing this building from a horizontal perspective through the doors and from the vertical perspective. Its a lot of trouble. Thats why they plan on bringing in heavy equipment including excavators, bulldozers, and cranes to move the material out of the way on the west side of the building. Just so they can get in and move around in some of those really tight nooks and cran anies. The bodies theyre seeing on the second floor. You can imagine that situation. The only way down from the second floor to the first floor was a makeshift staircase made out of wooden palettes on fire. The lights went out shortly after the fire started. You can imagine the panic. The fire spread quickly. The smoke was quick and it burned fast. No lights and only a couple of exits. It had to be nightmarish. Were getting an account from the witness a member of the artist collective. Its a 24 hour artist collective. Theres about 18 resident artists that are here and there throughout the day. Were having an event tonight and i and another member of the collective smelled smoke. We were downstairs. It was about to start painting and tried to, like, figure out where the smoke was coming from. We saw where the fire was in the back left corner of the space, and we started yelling and trying to get everyone out. It happened really quick. The fire built up really, really, really quickly. Like i said we were at an event here tonight. I was going back to get my camera and my computer and another member of the collective then broke his ankle and was calling out for help. He was pretty much in my space next to me. I was pulling a larger gentleman and there was a lot of stuff. The flames were there was too much smoke and i had to i had to let him i havent seen him and theres been flames shoot ought of the building for the past 30 minutes. I hope hes okay. Thats so difficult to listen to. Such a choice one has to make. Hes going have to deal with that choice that he was forced to make in that horrible situation. You can see sky 7 over the scene right now. It is starting to get darker and theyre bringing out equipment and lights so they continue to work through the night. You can see that light shining near the tents in the middle right of your screen right now. Such a grim task they have ahead of them. We know four of the nine bodies have been recovered so far and theyve been fingerprinted and the fingerprints have been rushed out for analysis to try to id the people who, no doubt, have family and friends who are waiting to hear how theyre doing. Those are four of the nine they know are dead so far. 25 more missing. And the search is resuming for those people trying desperately to find out what happened to them. On the other side of this, big hearts here in the bay area always. And donations continue to pour in. You can see on the crowd funding site youcaring. They raised 53,417. A little more than half way to their goal. Facebook beigadge, as well. A way to show your hearts and prayers are with the family and friends. You can share it by going on that breaking news in oakland as the sun starts to set and it gets darker on the scene. This tragic scene from last nights warehouse fire. There were only two ways out when the fire broke out at 11 30 last night inside packed with young people in their 20s and 30s expecting a great night. They were going to an electronic dance and music party. Nine people are confirmed dead at this point. At least two dozen people still missing. Theyre working right now to identify the victims taking fingerprints of the nine bodies theyve spotted so far. The effort under way to find the rest or find out what happened to to them. Its a grim and difficult prospect. Were here to bring you the latest information. Thanks for joining us. Im eric thermometer