a deadly warehouse fire in oakland one survivor's heart breaking decision next. ,, ,,,,

live from the cbs bay area studios this is kpix5 news. >> a massive fire tears through the building, dozens of people inside for a dance party. >> the flames were too much. too much smoke. >> they ran for their lives, some didn't make it out. >> this is a devastating scene. >> tonight investigators go piece by piece to figure out where and how the fire started. >> we knew people were in there and we were trying to get them out. and it was a labyrinth. >> while family and friends wait for answers. >> i want to go over there. i want to, if my brother, i want to find him. >> we have team coverage tonight

on that deadly warehouse fire. >> it could become the deadliest fire in oakland history. nine people confirmed dead. seven of them have now been identified. dozens more still missing. it happened during an electronic music concert in a building the city says was under investigation for code violations. before people knew what was happening flames already reached the stairs trapping many people on the second floor. the converted warehouse is located in oakland's fruitvale neighborhood. >> reporter: you can see from some of the aerial shots with eshowed you just a moment ago the devastation to this warehouse in the last 6 or 7 hours the activity level here along international has picked up tremendously. they're bringing in huge cranes

now. they're bringing in backhoes and bulldozers to get better access into the building to figure out exactly what happened. it's nearly 24 hours since this fire broke out. and the darkness that we've encountered now has made an already difficult recovery operation even more challenging as you can imagine working in the dark. but crews will be working through the night. they have brought in some high powered lights. there are portable tents out here. portable emergency units. they have brought in heavy equipment as i mentioned. tractors, dozers, cranes. now what they want to do is carefully cut a way through to the wreckage to try to recover what they say could be as many as two-dozen victims still inside here. there is a little bit of good news to report. we learned earlier tonight that several of the people they could not account for. people that were missing have now been accounted for. we'll talk about how they were able to do that through social media coming up.

bottom line is the death toll is expected to climb here. we've been told that by several of the agencies all day long. we have a team of reporters covering this fire tonight. first we go to betty with the difficult investigation ahead. >> reporter: it is difficult and grim. because first responders have to tally the number of the dead and also get inside the building. firefighters have not been able to do a full search of that burned warehouse behind you. we'll give you a closer live look at this hour. they cannot get in because the building is unstable. crews have to figure out how to delicately enter without triggering another collapse. from the ground you could see the unrelenting flames rage. >> it all happened really quick. fire went up really really really quickly. >> and at night from chopper5

you can see the charred wreckage. inside workers could see trapped in the debris but they couldn't get to with risk of collapse. >> there was a lot of of smoke and flames and heat that we had to back out. entry into the structure wasn't a straight path. there was a lot of cubicles, a clear exit wasn't defined. so it was a hard fire fight. >> the struggle is not over. firefighters struggled tonight to sort through the mess inside. but couldn't pull off a full search and rescue. today the building's roof had collapsed on to the bottom floor. at least one survivor says 18 artists were living in the collective space. and party goers were overwhelmed with just seconds to decide how to get out. at this hour it's still unclear what sparked this fire. but survivors and officials have said the cluttered space served a as tinderbox and there were no

sprinklers inside. >> reporter: recovery will be slow but nonstop particularly over the next 48 hours. the sheriff says that most of the bodies are located on the second floor. and at this hour, again seven of the nine confirmed bodies have been identified. >> thank you, betty. you can imagine how agonizing this is for families and friends of loved ones. they can't find them, they can't account for them. we've been talking to people desperate for any news of their loved ones. >> reporter: that's right and some of these families unfortunately will be getting some bad news tonight as betty mentioned a few seconds ago. alameda county sheriff's department has identified seven of the nine confirmed dead and they're in the process of notifying the next of kin. meanwhile families of the missing are bracing themselves for news that no parent, no sibling, no friend ever wants to

hear about a loved one. >> i'm very frustrated. i just want to go over there. >> families trying to find hope and clarity in the darkness of the rubble. >> i don't understand what we're doing here. >> all people like dan vega can do now is wait. wait for the news no family wants to hear. wait to find out if in the rubble are the remains of their loved ones. >> i want to go over there. it's my brother, i want to find him. >> his little brother alex and alex's girlfriend are among the fire victims. >> i want to find my brother. i don't know where he is. >> earlier today dan and several friends and family of the missing stood blocks away from the last place they were seen alive. holding one another blank stairs of disbelief. others sought solace within their communities. >> i have four friends still unaccounted for. >> tonight the chapel of the chimes in oakland hosted an

interfaith vigil with donated flowers and candles burning for the missing and a condolence book to sign. >> i'm sorry for everyone's loss. it's the people i didn't know. it's just i can't even it's mind blowing. it's heart breaking. >> and based off what officials say there's only more heart break to come. law enforcement warning that the number of dead will increase as this investigation continues. >> like when they woke up this morning your baby is in the fire and might not never come home or you don't know if your kid is dead or alive. it's sad. >> for those who need help the red cross in alameda county have set up a shelter here at 2425 east 12th street. for people looking for a loved one you can go there in person or call this number. tonight uc berkeley student publication is reporting that

three of the missing are uc berkeley students. >> you can imagine that social media was quite active last night and today as people exchanging information. facebook was quick to activate its safety check n. this is a feature where people can check in near a disaster. they can go to facebook and let friends know that they are safe. now one of the artists involved here, the guy who was performing last night is a dj who goes by the name golden donna. he used facebook to let his fans now he made it out okay. he is alive. this was posted on his artist page today. joel is safe but like many people he is heart broken and has several friends among the missing. sending love to everyone effected by this horrific event. want to give you a side by

side comparison. just a visual of what went on here. on your left you have the official fire fight. this is what firefighters saw when they arrived on scene last night. and on your right you see the after math. this is what it looked like this afternoon after the flames and heat died down a bit. the heat of the fire when it was raging caused the roof to cave in completely. that brought down most of the second floor and all of that material, all that furniture, the wood, the beams, everything with it. the building had been on the city's radar for quite some time. we are told a few weeks ago in fact. a city inspector from oakland came to make sure that the building was up to code. but they simply could not get in. kpix5 has more on that part of our story. >> reporter: had the inspector been able to get in they would have found it lacked modern safety features for the things it was being used for. before fire ripped through 4000

feet of warehouse friday night the oakland ghost ship was a bohemian wonderland filled with tapestries, pianos and more art. even at one point an airstreamed trailer. >> it's like a living piece of art. as far as the space goes there's always something being built and change and had rearranged. >> it's proved to be a nightmare for firefighters. >> i don't know how it was configured. but the ground floor we went in about 20 yards, we knew people were in there and we were trying to get them out. and it was a labyrinth. >> the concert by golden donna happened on the makeshift nonpermitted second floor of the warehouse. >> they had a fire rule that only one person can walk at a time down it. so when the fire, what i have, when the fire was created it got

so smokey, so bad that you couldn't see how to get down there. >> while the building was used for a hodgepodge of activities it was only permitted for one as a warehouse. >> we know the last designated use of the property was as a warehouse. we had received recent complaints about light and unpermitted construction at the property. >> an investigation was opened on november 19th. but an inspection of the interior construction never happened. >> we had an inspector attempt to enter the building and at that time was not able to secure access to the building. and so that investigation hadn't concluded. >> what that inspector might have noticed had they gained access inside was this. >> i saw no evidence of sprinklers. >> the man that claims to be the head of the art collective wrote this on facebook. confirmed everything i wrote so hard for is gone. blessed that my children were at

a hotel safe and sound. it's as if i woke from a dream to be standing now in poverty of self worth. >> now at the moment this is a fire investigation but opd is on the scene in case there's evidence of criminal neglect found and they will take over at that point. >> and members of the bay area community have been coming out to lend a hand where they can. including oakland's pro sports teams who are reacting to the deadly warehouse fires with observe answers. a large american flag was extended across part of the court as the players and the coaches from each team stood silent for a moment. the warriors are donating $50,000 to support the families who have been effected by this fire. and the oakland a's and the

oakland raiders helping out as well tonight. each team will match up to $30,000 of donations. so far fans have contributed more than $38,000 on a you caring page. you can find a link to that at the top of our website and on our facebook page. so that's the situation right flow. again a lot of activity overnight. and it will continue through the weekend into probably the first part of next week if there are bodies inside and we are told there are they will have to be pulled out. this will have to be secured. and the investigation is on going as we speak. so we hope to report back the very latest as soon as we get it. that's the situation from oakland tonight. back to you guys. >> and we've been hearing emotional stories of survival out of this warehouse fire. >> coming up how one man managed to get out. and how he desperately tried to

help others. we'll get back to ken live from the scene after a break. ,, ,,,,,,,,

city history. within the last hour - we we are continuing to follow this devastating oakland fire which could be the deadliest in city history we are told. just within in the last hour we have learned of the nine confirmed fatalities, seven of those people have now been

identified by the alameda county coroner's office. now this fire broke out just before midnight yesterday. it happened during an electronic music show in this converted warehouse. city leaders say the space did not have a permit to throw a party or how to house residents. people were not supposed to be living inning this building. most of the interior was made of wood as we've shown you and the space lacked even the basic safety features. there were no emergency exits, there were no fire sprinklers. none of that. for many people inside by the time they smelled too smoke it was literally too late to get out. we want to check in with betty on the difficulties that crews are having just getting back inside this building. >> reporter: this is all a very tricky project. we're talking about twisted metal, rubble, ash and of course

human bodies. that's what fire crews are dealing with at this hour and they need plenty of heavy machinery. we saw some of that ourselves. we saw enormous cranes and more backhoes moved in tonight to take care of this job. their first priority will be to sure up the walls to make sure this building is stable so that they can enter. this is all why the sheriff tonight could not speak to the exact number of bodies inside. >> there's bodies that are trapped in there that we need to cut from the wreckage. we need to do that carefully because when we begin to cut into the wreckage that can lead to collapse and structural integrity issues. so that has to be done systematically. >> i'm standing on fruitvale avenue about 100 yards away from the warehouse. i just saw about four fire personnel walking around on the rooftop of a neighboring building checking out the damage and they will be doing so over the next two days at the very

least. >> in stories like this there are always heroes of people trying to escape the fire for sure. but also there are people trying to help other people. now one artist says he smelled smoke but then stopped to help a man who had fallen down who had a broken ankle. >> i was pulling him out, he was a larger gentleman and there was a lot of stuff in the way. but the flames were too much. too much smoke. and i had to bleep, i had to let him --. [ indiscernible ] >> i haven't seen him. and there's flames out of the building for the past 30 minutes so. i hope he's okay. >> it's obvious you can hear the emotion in his voice there. a lot of people are still trying to second guess themselves.

could i have done more. just to get out of that was a miracle, believe me. >> thank you. we'll check back in with you in just a few moments. >> we're going to pause for just a moment from this to get you caught up on what's happening in weather this week. which includes a bit of a cool change coming into the bay area. especially midweek when numbers do no better than the low 50s. tomorrow looks nice. and we begin by looking at the golden gate bridge and the numbers around the bay area have already plunged into the 40s in spots. and it will go a little bit south from there as well. warm spots right now santa rosa down to 41 degrees. and west coast high pressure means we'll be high and dry and mild tomorrow. numbers still reach the 60s but not for long. so a clear and cool night tonight. sunny and mild tomorrow. but much cooler by tuesday when daytime highs plunge by about ten degrees. it'll be cool, but it should be dry. raiders are playing tomorrow at the coliseum, partly cloudy and

cool with temperature at game time at 61 degrees. that game will be broadcast on kpix. there's some rain up for eureka and central valley a little bit of fog tonight. we'll be looking for yosemite to get down to 45 degrees. santa rosa down to 40 degrees. and livermore 44 degrees. and for tomorrow we'll be looking at numbers in the low 60s for the bay area, 62 at mountain view. and 64 degrees in san jose. with forecasts for the upcoming week numbers will be in the low 50s and then we'll look for clouds to increase by the weekend with thursday and friday looking like partly to mostly cloudy. and then by saturday it looks as if we've got a chance of rain coming into the bay area with, just a hint of it as we get

closer to next weekend we'll see. but in the meantime this weekend does look high and dry and cool. remember that. we'll continue to follow that deadly warehouse fire in oakland. investigators have days of work ahead of them. a live update from the scene after a break. ,,,, did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back? say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet

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several dozen people that

were thought missing here have been located and are alive. so that's good news that we have to offer at this time. >> it really has not been much good to report on on this tragic day in oakland. but some families did get word that their loved ones are safe. at the same time authorities are all too sure that more victims will be found in the coming hours inside the warehouse behind me. and we will be right back. ppens. who won the game, who won on the dancing show... ...i mean, if i watched that show. same with my banking. with my bank of america mobile banking app, i can see my accounts all in one place. i can easily manage them and if something doesn't look right, i'm going to know. plus, i can set up alerts to help detect unusual activity. so i feel secure. wait, he won? that's an average tango... at best.

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steph curry...curling/ why not? ...against the phoenix suns saturday sports nuggets to snack on let's start you off with oakland. steph curry curling. why not. the warriors were running, klay thompson caught it, shot it, 6 3-pointers, 26 points. later on in the game kevin durant block party. they had numbers. steph curry scored 31, 20 alone in this 3rd quarter. 138-109 warriors at 17-3. off to its worst start in the last three years. college basketball stanford at fourth ranked kansas. back to back losses for the

stanford men. meantime at cal. they hosted alcorn state. bears by 12 grab a career high 26. 83-59. that's 25 straight wins at home for the bears. college football for you. wisconsin badgers, penn state in the way with a championship. penn state came from 21 points down. barkley balling on the receiving end of this. 38-31 but does that bump them from the top four teams for the college football playoffs. now watson with the heisman. title game against virginia tech. a 4th quarter flip to hunter renfro. they outlasted virginia tech 32-35. we'll be back. ,,,, ♪

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and work continues out here in oakland along international boulevard to try to locate more of the victims of this devastating fire. if you're at home wondering what can i do, is there anything i can do, there is. you can check our website, and the oakland a's, the oakland raiders, the golden state warriors are all providing monetary relief to the families of the folks who perished in this terrible disaster. >> now crews have a grim task of recovering some of those bodies. >> they'll be working through the night doing that. we'll have continuing coverage on kpix five. our morning news starts with the latest. the latest on our website. thanks for watching. good night.

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do you just get up in the morning and figure out ways to make me crazy? is that what you do? you plot it out? "how can i make alan miserable today? "how can i reach into his chest, rip out his heart, and suck it dry?" mom or ex-wife? ex-wife. hi, judith. charlie says hello. she says hi. you're evil and selfish, you know that? no, no, i think that is a helpful comment. i pay you alimony and child support so that you can have a nice house, a nice car, every weekend free because i've got jake and yet you're telling me you need a vacation? oh, really? oh, really? and what exactly is stressing you out, judith? is it the weekly manicure, the housekeeper... boob lift? the boob lift? that you paid for? that i paid for? and never got to see? and never got to see?! no, no, no, you listen to me. i think you live a damn fine lifestyle that i work 60 hours a week to support.