The report is the first official account of what survivors and witnesses told investigators, and how some 52 firefighters battled the blaze at the warehouse, an artist colony that was hosting an electronic music party that night.
The report also gives a vivid description of the warehouse's interior — a maze-like labyrinth with makeshift hallways constructed not of walls but of "pianos, organs, windows, wood benches, lumber" and stacks of other scavenged items that blocked possible exits and fueled the blaze.
The warehouse had no sprinklers and an ad hoc electrical system of power strips and extension cords that drew "electricity from the body shop next door," Max Harris, the self-described "creative director" and second-in-command of the Ghost Ship, told investigators.
Harris, 27, and Derick Almena, 47, who leased the warehouse from the owner, were charged this month with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors say the men knowingly created a fire trap in a building not licensed for housing or entertainment.
Lawyers for the men say they are scapegoats and that the building's owner Chor Ng, who denies knowledge that people lived in the warehouse, should face criminal charges. Harris and Almena have not yet entered pleas to the charges.
One victim was found just 10 feet from the front door, buried under debris, the report said.
Seven bodies were found clustered near a couch upstairs, the report said.
Eight others were found together wrapped in a rug on the first floor. But "it was determined that all eight victims had fallen from the second floor," much of which collapsed in the inferno.
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/ceda/documents/report/oak064503.pdf
