OAKLAND, Calif. _ Alameda County prosecutors have assigned criminal investigators to probe the Oakland warehouse fire as the death toll rose to 33.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced the move Sunday as the grim search continued. As of 3 p.m., searchers had covered only about 35 percent of the burned building.
"The scope of this tragedy is tremendous," Schaaf said.
Schaaf did not provide many details about a criminal probe, which would be handled by the office of District Attorney Nancy E. O'Malley. She said she was not authorized to announce a formal criminal investigation but said district attorney's investigators are on the scene actively reviewing evidence.
"It is far too early to have suspicions about what caused this fire," the mayor said.
There has been growing scrutiny about the warehouse, which was the subject of health and safety complaints that the city was investigating at the time of the blaze.
Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly called the death toll an "astronomical number" and warned that officials expect to find more victims as the search continues. Officials asked the families of the missing to preserve DNA samples of loved ones so they could be used to help identify victims.
"When we started this investigation, if you would have told us we would have 33 victims, we wouldn't have believed you," Kelly said.
The victims _ some as young as 17 _ were found "throughout the entire square footage" of the warehouse.
The magnitude of the loss "hit very close to home," Kelly said, adding that one of their deputies lost his son in the fire.
"Our department is hurting from that," he said.
Searchers painstakingly sifted through the rubble of the building through the night. They described it as a horrific scene of destruction, with many concertgoers unable to flee when the fire broke out.
Authorities said seven of the victims have been identified. Their families have been notified.
On Sunday morning, people walked up to the caution tape barrier at the warehouse, trying to see beyond the TV cameras at the charred building. A couple held hands and stared forward. A man nursed a cup of coffee and leaned against a wall.
The smell of smoke lingered in the air. People had placed roses in a chain-link fence across the street.
John Ko's cousin is among those still missing. Ko came up from Los Angeles with some of his family after hearing about the fire Saturday.
They'd been at the victims' center nearby, Ko said, but they wanted to see the site of the fire itself.
"It's our first time here," he said.
The rising death toll makes the blaze one of the worst in recent California history.
The fire's cause is not known. Arson is not suspected, but Kelly said nothing had been ruled out.
City records cited allegations of at least three code violations at the building this year. In one complaint, city inspectors said there was a complaint of an illegal building on the property as well as piles of trash.
"This property is a storage (facility), but the owner turned it into a trash recycling center. The yard became a trash collection site, and the main building was (remodeled) for residential," according to city records.
City building and safety officials said Saturday afternoon that there was an open investigation into the warehouse and that inspectors had found evidence of blight. The building was permitted for use as a warehouse, not for housing.
They said that a party or concert at the property would have required a permit, which had not been granted. They also said there was no evidence that the building had fire sprinklers or alarms.
