Complaints mounted about the cluttered warehouse converted into an illegal artists’ colony before a deadly blaze ripped through earlier this month, but few — if any — made it to the Oakland Fire Department.
Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said Tuesday there are no city records showing her department receiving concerns about the building , which former residents, neighbors and others say was the subject of numerous calls to 911.
“We do not inspect buildings, we inspect businesses,” Reed said during a press conference. “There were no indications this was an active business.”
City administrator Sabrina Landreth, who also is in temporary charge of the Oakland Police Department, said officials are compiling and reviewing police records to determine how many times officers responded to complaints about the warehouse.
The deadliest structure fire in the U.S. in more than a decade broke out during a Dec. 2 late-night dance party in the cluttered warehouse. It killed 36 people. The building had been converted to art studios and illegal living spaces, and former denizens said it was a death trap of piled wood, furniture, snaking electrical cords and only two exits.
