Oakland warehouse fire

For those of you who haven’t heard, a terrible fire gutted an Oakland warehouse known as the GhostShip. It was hosting an electronic music event when the fast moving fire destroyed the building and took the lives of at least 9 (two dozen more unaccounted for) kids in their late teens to thirties. I apologize for bringing the mood down on this forum but I do believe in the power of collective love and hope. Let’s send it to the friends and families of those lost and keep hope alive for the missing.

Thank you

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Cherushii was performing at this event and is unaccounted for.

Many of us are fearing the worse.

https://www.elektronauts.com/talk/71

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Some people I’ve shared bills with over the last few years are still among the missing. :sob:

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This is horrible!

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such horrible news. thanks adam for posting this link, breaks my heart to think of having to use it.

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I saw the news here in Holland.
Always a terrible thing to happen.

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So… it seems she’s gone, now… So unfair… so sad…

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I personally knew performers on the bill. Many friends of mine fought to escape, and thankfully only had smoke inhalation. Several friends aren’t coming back. That night I was acting as a rely point to convey information to help confirm who was safe and who was not safe to friends in other cities, I stayed up until 4am checking and praying.

To anyone who is disconnected from a major city’s underground dance community - it has always been a space for queer people and people of color. We often exist in these types of spaces for being both a broke artist and the type of person a landlord denies based on how we look. It is simply not just to be in a ‘cool space’, but to not be homeless or broke from paying exorbitant rent. Many queer and trans performers were on the bill, a number of the dead are transwomen. These communities gave birth to disco, garage, house, techno, etc etc. Elektron wouldn’t have a culture to market their equipment to without these communities making their culture known. Any discussion about this incident without that fact - that dance nights like the one in Oakland are a life vest for these repressed communities - does a disservice to the dead. You cannot separate the two.

I am sure I am preaching to the choir, but I want to make it known for anyone unaware. It has been a terrible weekend for me

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It’s was the same mental for rave party, the club were to expensive for artist, so they decided to move out in open air place or in brownfields, and escape to all pressures, to explain their own creativity without all the business busy world.

I cannot think how tragic it would be for all families and friends, all people who died were in this place to enjoy the moment, but the faith can be a real ****
They will continue to live with the music they created.

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A lengthy feature in the NY Times partly concerning accountability for the fire, or lack thereof. Chelsea Dolan (Cherushii) is mentioned among the victims.

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The NY Times piece is a difficult, gut-wrenching read. I didn’t personally know anyone in the fire (aside from one survivor), but was close to several people who did, and I’ve spent time in underground loft/warehouse spaces in Oakland going to noise and electronic shows. Just endless trauma and reading it made me realize no one has properly healed yet - the residents, families and friends of the deceased, art/music scenes.

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Man that’s one intense read…It leaves me speechless.

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What a read! So well written. Peace and love to all impacted by this. I just hope the judge has some humanity for Harris.

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I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the wealthy property owner doesn’t have to face consequences. Wow.

Yeah this blew my mind too. I thought it was the landlord’s responsibility to make sure everything is up to code? Even just regular stuff like maintenance etc.? Maybe it’s different cause it was a warehouse and not a residential home or anything.

Depends on the lease agreement.

When this first happened it actually fucked my mental health for about a month. I’ll come back to this.

Here is my take. In my professional life I oversee a local branch to a international company which is housed in a warehouse. We moved in when the building was brand new.

It is built up to code and our agreement states that when we leave that it is left in the same state that we moved in. Much like any rental/lease agreement. In the interim we are responsible for any changes we make and general maintenance. There are property mangers that fix issues that are not ours when they come up with the building but only when we report any issues. Otherwise property owners are very hands off.

I can only imagine the grief left in that community. I feel bad for everyone’s loss but I also think anyone who lived there had to know the risk in being there. This entire building, in the state it was from all the alterations, was a tragedy waiting to happen. Sadly, it happened when it was full of people.

Who I mostly feel for are the folks who went there for an event. People who probably didn’t really know what a death trap they were going into.

In my opinion although there is plenty of blame to go around most of it should be directed towards the people who ran the ghostship. They knew what that had done to that building was dangerous and if they didn’t then I don’t really know what to say. I’m not saying that they intended to cause the death of all those people but that doesn’t absolve them in their complicity.

I was once in a band where our jamspot was in the basement of a used bookstore. There was only one exit to upstairs and only one exit out of the building. One day it dawned on me that we sat under 2-3 tons of kindling(old used books) that if ever it caught fire while we were jamming loudly it could burn and collapse on us and we wouldn’t even see it coming. I brought it up to everyone but no one else was as concerned as me.

The thought of that happening used to give me actual nightmares. As it was, we jammed down there for 3 years without incident but I was always aware of that risk.

I think it’s the same thing here. You look around and think “hmm this might not be so good” but then of course nothing bad ever happens to YOU, so whatever.

Also me personally, maybe I’m just daft but if I walked into a place that was not up to fire Marshall code I honestly wouldn’t know. Like how did ghost ship look inside? What made it a death trap?

Around the time it happened there were some pictures of the inside before the fire. What made it sort of cool was also what made it crazy dangerous. It was full of stuff all over it. I also remember reading that the “stairwell” was just a bunch of stacked pallets. The main part of the building where people lived was all trailers and makeshift shacks. The whole place was a bit of a maze to begin with.

Add the smoke from the fire and people unfamiliar with the building didn’t have a chance in getting out of there. Presumably it was the same for the the people who were familiar with it and did not manage to make it out.