The Ghost Ship was a former warehouse converted into an artist collective with residential spaces in a suburb neighborhood of Oakland, California. The premises only had permits that allowed it to be used for business, not residential purposes. On the day of the fire, December 2nd 2016, there was an underground music party, graced by artists from the house of music record label 100% silk (Kandinsky, & Murray, 2018) . The fire broke out at 11:20 pm, during the concert. The flames were first noticed on the first floor, whereby it proceeded to the second floor, trapping the party attendants. This brutal inferno took five hours to extinguish, claiming the lives of thirty-six individuals out of the eighty to a hundred people in attendance.
Three victims reported having tried extinguishing the fire before it became worse; however, the smoke was too much, and they had to flee yelling 'fire' to save their lives. Allegedly the owners of the establishment were running the place without any safety permits or regulations. This factor largely contributed to the accident. One owner, Harris, was even in attendance at the party. This building was loosely built and full of wooden material. Some materials like rails and pallets were used to partition the building into spaces.
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One tenant reported that the building's power setup ran entirely on electric chords. For this reason, the owners rented the establishment to the tenants at a relatively lower price. The firefighters had a hard time extinguishing the fire, and thirty minutes after their arrival, they had not rescued anyone. As the fire escalated, the supervisor, Bowran, had to save the firefighters that were inside the building by ordering them to withdraw as flames entirely covered the second floor. The building collapsed shortly afterward. It took fifty-two firefighters and a fourteen piece apparatus to declare the fire under control at 4:36 am.
Investigations of this accident were launched after two days, on December 4th, by the Alameda County District Attorney, Nancy O'Malley, whereby the fire officials announced that they had recovered all the thirty-six bodies of the victims. The mayor, Libby Schaaf, said that the charges of the suspects were to range from involuntary manslaughter to murder. Derick Almena and Max Harris, who were responsible for the establishment's lease, were charged for involuntary manslaughter. However, their lawyers said they should not be held accountable because the fire started from a building adjacent to the warehouse. Almena and Harris both pleaded no contest to the thirty-six cases of involuntary manslaughter.
It was revealed that no inspector has been in the building for the past thirty years. However, it was discovered that several inspectors and even the police had been in the Ghost Ship over the past months but reported no issue (Willon et al., 2017) . Harris was acquitted of all the thirty-six cases of involuntary manslaughter, and he showed remorse during the trials, whereas Almena's case was declared a mistrial. The authorities never identified the inferno's exact cause, but the official reports suggested that it was caused by electric issues.
There were some factors that increased the severity of the fire. The Ghost Ship had been reported to have illegal interior construction. It was separated by wooden doors. The building was filled with unnecessary junk such as wooden furniture, pianos, art, and mannequins, which blocked the entrances, hindering the victims from escaping the fire. The police and fire department had warned the owners that this maze-like arrangement was a fire hazard, but their statements was not seriously considerd.
The inferno produced heavy smoke, which was the most intoxicating and caused the death of most victims. The Ghost Ship had no smoke alarms, fire alarms, or sprinklers, and this prevented the visitors from knowing about the fire early enough. Sprinklers could have helped to control the fire before it escalated. The pallet staircase, which was the only one in the building, collapsed, preventing any survivor escaping from the second floor. Its collapse also hindered the firefighters from conducting a successful rescue. The terrible cloud of smoke also caused zero visibility to the firefighters, such that they could only advance in a zigzag pattern causing a delay in the fire extinguishing and rescue process.
A number of factors were alleged to have caused the development and spread of the Ghost Ship fire. Residents of this establishment had described it as a fire trap full of debris and makeshift wiring. Despite many warnings, the owners did not seem to rectify this issue. Initial reports stated that a faulty refrigerator started the fire on the first floor. However, Almena's lawyers argued that the fire started from an adjacent building. Official reports state that there were a lot of electrical appliances, especially on the first floor, including refrigerators, electric cords, and cooking appliances.
There were many flammable materials on the first floor, which are believed to have sparked the inferno. However, the real cause is yet to be identified. The main reason for the fire's rapid spread was the lack of adequate fire management systems in the building, such as smoke detectors, fire alarms, sprinklers, and exit signs (Tolle et al., 2020) . This was a lamentable occurrence that could have been prevented if necessary caution was observed, and justice is yet to be served to the victims and their families.
References
Kandinsky, A., & Murray, D. (2018). Queer Selfies and the Shifting Landscapes of Queer Space.
Tolle, F., Chen, A. P., & Hsu, E. B. (2020). Fire at the Oakland Ghost Ship Warehouse: A disaster life cycle-based analysis. American Journal of Disaster Medicine , 15 (4), 293-302.
Willon, P., St John, P., Queally, J., & Winton, R. (2017). Oakland officials well aware of problems at Ghost Ship before fire killed 36, records show. Los Angeles Times .
