my name is melinda drayton. melin-e-l-i-n-d- m-e-l-i-n-d-a, drayt-r-a-y-t-o- battalion fire chief for oakland fire. i took over at approximately 9:00 to start our night off operational period which lasted 12 hours ending at 9:00 this morning. our goal was to work collaboratively with public works to breach the b 5, would be the left side of the warehouse building, the fire building in order to gain access for our firefighters and alameda county sheriffs to be able to remove debris systematically from the building, the vacant lot next to the building, literally bucket by bucket in a methodical, thoughtful, mindful and compassionate way. we had firefighters with basically cover alls and buckets and shovels taking bits of debris out into the vacant lot to then be loaded into dump trucks and removed to an off-site location. in order to do this we had to gain access by breaching the walls with heavy rescue equipment, specialized tools that turned out to be a very successful operation. we have gone from one end to the

del sabado y el domingo, dijeron que el fuego comenzo en la parte trasera del edificio sot - melinda drayton jefa del batallon del departamento de bomberos de oakland "we feel very strongly we have the area of origin where the fire started." "we are no closer to finding a cause" nos sentimos seguros de decir que sabemos el área donde se noiginó el fuego, pero todavía podemos encontrar la usa delinco (--bridge--) segn las autoridades, de las mas de 30 victimas halladas, 11 fueron identidicadas y sus familares ya han sido notificados. hasta ahora el 30 por ciento del edificio no ha sido examinado por lo que aun no se sabe cuantos cuerpos mas se encontraran. sot sargento ray kelly / oficina del alguacil del condado de alameda "we have had to deliver a lot of bad news to people." hemos tenido que dar muchas malas noticias a las personas. esto es lo que queda del barco fantasma, un estudio de arte y casa de docenas de artistas. este laberinto contaba con muebles de madera por todos lados y una escalera movible tambien de madera,. el viernes se celebro una fiesta de musica electronica,y se cree qu

my name is melinda, drayton. battalion chief for oakland fire. i took over from our deputy chief last night at approximately 9:00 to start our night of operational period which lasted 12 hours, ending at 9:00 this morning. our goal was to work collaboratively with public works to breach the b-side, the left side of the warehouse building, the fire building. in order to gain access for our firefighters, and alameda county sheriffs. to be able to remove debris, systematically from the building, to the vacant lot next to the building. literally bucket by bucket, in a methodical, thoughtful, mindful, and compassionate way. we had firefighters with basically cover-alls and buckets and shovels taking bits of debris out into the vacant lot to then be loaded into dump trucks and removed to an off-site location. in order to do this, we had to gain access by breaching the wall with heavy rescue equipment, specialized tools, that turned out to be a very successful operation. we have gone from one end to the other end of the building, encompassing approximat

(sot melinda drayton/oakland fire battalion chief) for us as firefighters working under a wobbly potentially collapsing exterior wall is extremely dangerous.(track 2)the fire broke out friday night during an electronic dance party, trapping dozens of people. the two-story building was converted to artists studios and illegal living spaces. chase wittenauer was one of the victims. the 32 year old was bartending that night.(sot 3 i just can't help feeling so badly for my son.overnight neighbors continued to light candles at a makeshift memorial. memorial.(sot melissa arellano/neighbor) it's just crazy because you would never think something like this would happen so many people were in there just to go have a fun time(bridge edward lawrence/cbs news, oakland, ca) ca)fire officials don't know yet what caused the fire but they think they know where it started, in the back of the building on the first floor. fire officials say they've now searched about 70 percent of and the lack of sprinklers and only two exits made the tragedy worse. edward lawrence for cbs news, oakland, california. among the

r onchief melinda drayton says firefighters are going through the ashes by hand, one bucket at a time searching for victims. >> when i started last night, we found the first one instantaneously 6789 single six grouped together, four grouped together and then another single 789. >> what does that tell snu. >> we are looking at bodies on top of each other. it does not appear that they were able to get out of the second floor. >> people who lived here say thi warehouse had been converted into dozens of artist studios with no sprinklers or smoke alarms. an advertisement online lists one for 500 a month. oakland city councilman noel galo confirmed today the >> so councilman who?? should be held responsible? >> well, for one is the property, the he owns the faity-- facility. he cleeshly knew, he knows what the permit process is. he knows what the fire code is. >> do you think the city should be held responsible. >> at the?i same time, yes. absolutely. including all of us because we all know it. >> cbs news learned the district attorney has been here to review the scene himself. elaine, the

my name is melinda drayton. battalion chief for oakland fire. i took over from our deputy chief last night at approximately 9:00 to start our night ops operational period, which lasted 12 hours ending at 9:00 this morning. our goal was to work collaboratively with public works to breach the b side, would be the left side of the warehouse building, the fire building, in order to gain access for our firefighters and alameda county sheriffs to be able to remove debris systematically from the building to the vacant lot next to the building. literally bucket by bucket in a methodical, thoughtful, mindful, and compassionate way. we had firefighters with basically coveralls and buckets and shovels taking bits of debris out into the vacant lot to then be loaded into dump trucks and removed to an off-site location. in order to do this, we had to gain access by breaching the wall with heavy rescue equipment, specialized tools that turned out to be a very successful operation. we have gone from one end to the other end of the building encompassing approxim

we spoke earlier this morning with battalion chief melinda drayton of the oakland fire department. >> good morning. >> chief, let me ask you first how is your community dealing with this massive loss of life? >> the community is reeling. it's been a really long weekend. a lot of raw emotions. everybody's still scrambling for information. there seems to be, you know, less than a few degrees of separation in a city of over 400,000. everyappears to know somebody that knows somebody. it feels very small town. >> you were inside the warehouse. can you describe the scene? >> i guess yesterday when i went in to the building before we had started the recovery, it is a large warehouse space, and if you can imagine, a roof, a second floor, and a mezzanine all collapsing into the main floor with a huge fire load and massive amount of stuff. just on top of everything. in small mounds, in large mounds, in some cases reaching almost to the rooftops. and other areas. you could see, you know, halfway through. >> chief, can you tell us about the status of the recovery effort. and the challenge of it.

about 75% of the warehouse being searched so far, one area that has not been that we heard from melinda drayton from oakland fire was the area where they believe the fire started by the center back of the building. the atf corded that area off. let's listen in. >> i want to make sure everyone can hear us. we're going to go ahead and get started. thank you for joining us. my name is officer johnna watson, one of the public information officers for the oakland police department. we would like to provide you with an operational update. at this time i'd like to turn it over to alameda county sheriff's deputy tya modest. there has been no change overnight in the total number of victims located and recovered. the numbers have shifted within the 36. at this time we have 26 families that have been notified. we have nine tentative ids and we still have one doe remaining that needs to be notified. >> please allow me to introduce the oakland battalion chief. he'll update you on what took place last night and early this morning. >> good morning. as you recall, yesterday we were forced to suspend recovery o

i'm melinda drayton, battalion chief for oakland fire. took over from our deputy chief last night at approximately 9:00 to start our night operational period which lasted 12 hours ending at 9:00 this morning. our goal was to work collaboratively with public works to breach the b side, would be the left side of the warehouse building, the fire building in order to gain access for our firefighters and alameda county sheriff to be able to remove debris systematically from the building, the vacant lot next to the building literally bucket by bucket in a methodical, thoughtful, mindful, and compassionate way. we had firefighters with basically cover alls and buckets and shovels taking bits of debris out into the vacant lot to then be loaded into dump trucks and removed to an off site location. in order to do this, we had to gain access by breaching the wall with heavy rescue equipment, specialized tools that turned out to be a very successful operation. we have gone from one end to the other end of the building encompassing approximately 20% o

devastation, and you can also hear the hurt on so many of the firefighters, especially battalion chief melinda drayton from the oakland fire department as she talked about what they're finding. >> it was quiet. it was heartbreaking. to get through what we were able to accomplish in 12 hours was a phenomenal feat. we have a lot more to go. we're going to be here for a few more days just getting through the building. if you do the math, and we'll be taking the same approach. >> reporter: again, the number is now 24 confirmed dead. only a few families have been notified due to the process of having to identify the bodies, and they do believe that number, eric, to approach 40. they're actually even getting the information from cars in the area to see if some of the people that may be inside here that perished may have parked their cars that night in this area before they went inside for that party. eric? >> adam, just really so horrific. the big question right now is why was it open? why was that building not padlocked? just last month they had an investigation for alleged code violations. have officials

my name is melinda drayton, battalion chief for oakland fire. i took over from the deputy chief last night approximately 9:00 to start our night operational period which lasted 12 hours ending at 9:00 this morning. our goal is to work collaboratively with public works to breach the b-5, the left side of the warehouse building, the fire building in order to gain access for firefighters and alameda county sheriff's to be able to remove debris systematically from the building to the vacant lot next to the building, literally bucket by bucket, in a methodical, thoughtful, mindful and compassionate way. we had firefighters with basically coveralls and buckets and shovels taking bits of debris out in to the vacant lot to then we loaned into dump trucks and removed to an off site low indication. in order to do this, we had to gain access by breaching the wall with heavy rescue equipment, speciallized tools -- specialized tools that turned out to be a successful operation. we went from one end to the other end of the building encompassing 20% of the bui

. >>> melinda drayton is the ta -- battalion chief in oakland. thank you so much for your time this morning. and please know our condolences go to the families and the entire oakland community. so many that are still unaccounted for. especially teenagers and the fear is of course, that the death toll will rise. >> absolutely. the unfortunate reality of this somber monday morning is that we're anticipating additional >> it's such a sad reality. battalion chief drayton, you know so many people are asking, how could this happen? there were reports that there were complaints about this building. it was not zoned to have people living there, but that was the case. so what went wrong here, and how can it be prevented from happening in the future? >> the city of oakland is still looking at its history with this building and working with spaces. community spaces for our artists. we have got a vibrant community in oakland that we embrace, and we obviously want to make sure we're preventing any disasters like this in the future. at this point, we have brou

we are joined by chief, melinda drayton, good morning. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. my accomplish. >> we have -- my pleasure. >> we have heard this search is slow. can you give me an estimate what percentage of this building has been checked and cleared at this stage? >> at 52 hours into the incident we think we have cleared >> would you say based on the areas you searched you believe the death toll will go higher? >> at this point we have family members at the victims' center and their members are unaccounted for and unfortunately the fatality will go highlight sneer what can you tell us about the process of family members. i know you asked for possible dna and possible >> the coroner, once we locate, along with the sheriff's office in the belting, there is a multi-pronged approach for their identification including the dna and fingerprinting because a lot of these young members of our community had id on them but we're not able to use that as a pure justification and assume what we find is reality. the proximity of the fire department and the fact you were there in

. >>> we are joined now by oakland fire chief melinda drayton. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. my pleasure. >> we have heard now this search of the building is slow, it is methodical, happening by hand and with buckets. can you give me an estimate what percentage of the building has been checked and cleared at this stage? >> at 52 hours into the incident, we think that we have cleared approximately 70% of the building. >> would you say based on the areas yet to be searched your fear is the death toll will go higher? >> at this point, we still have families at thebers unaccounted for. so we unfortunately believe that the fire fay tattfatality will higher. >> what can you tell us about the process of providinghese fa? you've asked for dna and possible dental records, i know. >> right. so the coroner, once we locate along with the sheriff's office in the building, there's a multipronged approach to vident, just as you said, the dna and fingerprinting, because a lot of these young members of our community had i.d. on them, but we're not able