Oakland "Nightclub" Fire

....capital fundamentalism for pushing artists out of the city and into these conditions.

Thats going to come up with this. There is a massive housing shortage in the bay area. There is no affordable housing. People are living in RV's parked on sidestreets. Its a real problem.
 
Thats going to come up with this. There is a massive housing shortage in the bay area. There is no affordable housing. People are living in RV's parked on sidestreets. Its a real problem.
People in Portland can't afford the RV's they just camp out on the streets themselves. It's quite lovely.
 
An interesting development from this. A friend of mine out in Berkeley, CA said the art gallery/company warehouse space he's at (lumenlabs.net) had a surprise inspection this morning from "all the agencies... fire, housing, code, etc" and they said they would get the results in two weeks.
 
An interesting development from this. A friend of mine out in Berkeley, CA said the art gallery/company warehouse space he's at (lumenlabs.net) had a surprise inspection this morning from "all the agencies... fire, housing, code, etc" and they said they would get the results in two weeks.

Expect emergency changes to codes and standards. We live in an era and society were there are mostly reactions, not pro-actions.
 
Looking through their website (http://www.oaklandghostship.com/), I can see the appeal. I know many people who would have been a part of that scene and not thought twice about their safety. I have been hearing reports on the news that they are saying that a refrigerator was the cause. I think this may be misleading. I think that the reason it happened during the rave was that it was overloaded circuits. It is really tragic.

This is the mindset to which I refer: https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/12/04/it-could-have-been-any-one-of-us/
 
An interesting development from this. A friend of mine out in Berkeley, CA said the art gallery/company warehouse space he's at (lumenlabs.net) had a surprise inspection this morning from "all the agencies... fire, housing, code, etc" and they said they would get the results in two weeks.
This happened in Baltimore this week as well, at the Bell Foundry. Sign of the times... $ > art.
 
Looking at all the flammable antiques lying around, my guess would be from the lighting system close to something it shouldn't rather than overloaded wires though, unless they were using cheap extension cables with steel conductors.

My mind is possibly tainted from a runaway light that recently ended up taking the Leko's optics with it... (Bad batch of gel sheets)
 
Remember, this isn't like a regular EDM type rave. This is an "artists" jam session. Back in the 80's we called them the Rainbow Children and they often migrated out into the forests with these types of events. I don't think that they had a lot of lighting similar to a rave. They would have been plugging in a lot of amps and maybe had some additional lighting, but there were probably a lot of open flames as well.
 
Expect emergency changes to codes and standards. We live in an era and society were there are mostly reactions, not pro-actions.

From what I read, there were complaints made to the city about the space. An inspector had even tried to gain entry recently. I don't know much about this situation but it doesn't seem that the city was negligent.

While looking through the pictures of that space, I was struck by two very different thoughts. One was, "Man, I'm glad I'm not in charge of that space. That place is a death trap." The other was, "This place looks like a beautiful refuge for people who really need it." I've spent time at similar spaces in my youth and the sense of social safety and the sense of belonging was really valuable for me at the time. This is an awful tragedy in quite a few ways.

I think there will be hearings, committees and bureaucrats going through every detail with a fine toothed comb... and I think there should be. I hope there are also conversations about why this place existed in the first place and how a lack of affordable housing and lack of art spaces affects a community. You can only price people out of their homes for so long before they start making their own homes.
 
This happened in Baltimore this week as well, at the Bell Foundry. Sign of the times... $ > art.

As mentioned above, there's going to be a lot of knee-jerk reaction to this. And then, things will settle down and the root cause and its negative effects will likely continue. These inspections should have been happening all along, and I don't understand why they haven't been. Art, Safety, and decent/legal living conditions don't have to be mutually exclusive. I dunno, maybe I'm missing your point. Can you elaborate on $ > art?

Looking at all the flammable antiques lying around, my guess would be from the lighting system close to something it shouldn't...

I'm not sure there actually was any stage lighting involved in this at all. I've seen a few YouTube clips of the atmosphere earlier that same night and it was mostly just a DJ at a table and a very dimly-lit setting. Maybe a few rope/Christmas lights around, but there didn't seem to be any lighting system that I saw.
 
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As mentioned above, there's going to be a lot of knee-jerk reaction to this. And then, things will settle down and the root cause and its negative effects will likely continue. These inspections should have been happening all along, and I don't understand why they haven't been. Art, Safety, and decent/legal living conditions don't have to be mutually exclusive. I dunno, maybe I'm missing your point. Can you elaborate on $ > art?



I'm not sure there actually was any stage lighting involved in this at all. I've seen a few YouTube clips of the atmosphere earlier that same night and it was mostly just a DJ at a table and a very dimly-lit setting. Maybe a few rope/Christmas lights around, but there didn't seem to be any lighting system that I saw.

I agree that inspections all along would have been ideal and that art and decent living conditions shouldn't be mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, they often seem to be and the artists who live in these places are willing to accept the risks for a multitude of reasons. The Bell Foundry is part of the Station North Arts District, an area that has seen significant growth and development recently. That building/property is prime real estate in an "up and coming" spot, which is ripe for "re-development" into condos, lofts, and apartments close to the "hip" arts scene. It'll be an interesting story to follow, certainly.
 
Last I read/watched (news), it was pointing to a refrigerator, or specifically what that frige was plugged into.
Somehow a vision pops into my mind of a lot of appliances plugged into a strip. Apparently there was an area with appliances and a 45 degree burn pattern extending upward. Not hard to imagine how fast that spread given the pictures.
 
Thats going to come up with this. There is a massive housing shortage in the bay area. There is no affordable housing. People are living in RV's parked on sidestreets. Its a real problem.
Completely correct. Friends in SF managed to buy a house literal weeks before the shortage hit the news outlets.
 
No doubt the actions of the artists in the warehouse will adversely impact artists that are not so irresponsible and thoughtless. Not much different than the current demonizing of all law enforcement officers resulting in a substantial increase fatalities in the same neighborhoods where the complaints come from. And of course those few in both cases will blame government, rather than the individuals responsible.
I run
To clarify, it doesn't seem Derick Ion is the owner of the building, is he? http://heavy.com/news/2016/12/derick-ion-micah-allison-facebook-post-ghost-ship-fire/ Chor Ng is the owner.

Seems like lots of blame to go around between Derick, the owner, the city, and the tenants.


Agree totally! I am concerned about this fire as well. I run a not for profit community center in which our theater is located. We house artists in a safe, code compliant environment. The building and the theater qualify as legal ‘place of public assembly’ as per NYC DOB and FDNY code and are frequently inspected, and while were stay on top of it, there is always something to be addressed - you are always chasing code. You have to be diligent.
It is interesting, every time I walk into a small theater or artist loft building I go through the whole checklist, especially the basics. Lately I have not been in a small theater or club venue without seeing sprinklers, signage, and extinguishers – comforting but this was not the not the case 10 years ago and I am sure there are many that do not comply..
There is no excuse for these deaths – code enforcement, tenants and owners are all to blame. This fire was chilling with regard to the lack of sprinklers (we are 100% and we pay about 1500$ a year just for monthly inspections, plus I have to have a sprinkler license), a single egress from a second floor (how did that not concern its inhabitants), a wooden staircase, combustibles (paint rags and solvents), emergency signage and lighting (they had none), and no fire extinguishers, (we have 30 – there is one within sight from anywhere in the building). They had nothing.
 
To the large majority of businesses and buildings that are doing the right thing, or at least very close, inspections and regulations are harassment they wish to avoid. This leads to a very strong drive to block government from 'bothering' all these up standing businesses. Cuts to inspections are just a part of the larger goals.

Then we have a reminder of why we have government and rules. The emotional public outcries demand action. Until the pendulum swings back the other way...

We may well have some new regs come out of an investigation. I feel quite strongly just a little bit more enforcement would have prevented the loss of life, if not of the building.
 
The change of use of a building has always been a code enforcement problem. There is no permit required to buy a building, so it doesn't really come on the radar. Yet, it's legendary for just this kind of thing. I'm not being thorough but the Beverly Hills Supper Club is sort of like this, with additions but no looking back at existing. The Station (Rhode Island) was a family restaurant, new owners made it a concert venue. Two different occupancies in the same building. This was a warehouse, presumed to have very low occupant loads, and therefore a single stair is fine, and as an existing warehouse, probably did not require sprinklers. By changing furniture, not normally requiring a building permit, it became both multi family residential and assembly.

Never do a play or event in a non-traditional venue? I sure have - classrooms, the beach (OK - not a big fire hazard - maybe drowning), a church, a restaurant or ballroom - but there was no building permit and - in most places in the US - no special permit necessary (then at least).

There is not a simple solution and politicians don't have patience and interest in long, complicated solutions. They want an immediate fix and sound byte.
 
FOH is reporting that we lost a brother from the sound world in the fire. We knew it was probably coming, but it's always sad.

This of course reopens up an old topic. Promoters and venues care about making money. Your safety is typically not their primary concern. There are gigs that you should consider walking away from for your own safety.
 
There are gigs that you should consider walking away from for your own safety.

This should be on a flag.

I agree with something that Bill Said earlier about how this will bring emergency code and enforcement changes, but I also agree with something that someone else said,

All the firecodes in the world won't stop this kind of thing from happening.

These types of events might happen because people are purposefully trying to create a sense of being outside of traditional life and that the rules of society don't apply.
 
For various reasons I can't elaborate, but there is a large assembly building (several thousand capacity) here that has issues with emergency lighting, or a lack thereof. Brought it up to my supervisor, was told to "trust the engineer [that designed the building]". Glad to be gone from such a scary situation.
 

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