OAKLAND, Calif. _ As criminal investigators begin to examine who is to blame for one of the worst fires in modern California history, Oakland authorities halted their grim search for bodies in the ruins of a warehouse blaze on Monday due to structural weaknesses in the fire-gutted building.
"For us as firefighters, working under a wobbly, potentially collapsing exterior wall is extremely dangerous," said Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Melinda Drayton. "We will not put our firefighters in danger at this point and we will not put Alameda County sheriff's (personnel) in the precarious situation with us."
Thirty-six bodies have been recovered, but officials halted recovery operations just after midnight when a crew that was surveying the destruction from a neighboring rooftop noticed that the front wall was leaning 3 inches toward the center of the building, Drayton said. Most of the bodies have been recovered in the center of the building.
As of Monday morning, about 70 percent of the building had been searched, officials said.
"We absolutely believe the number of fire fatalities will increase," Drayton.
Authorities believe the fire began in the back of the building but they still have no idea what caused it.
Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will determine a plan on how to search the building, Drayton said. Key areas have been quarantined for additional investigation, she said.
Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Tya Modste said of the 36 victims recovered, 11 have been identified. Authorities released the names of seven victims on Sunday: Cash Askew, 22, David Cline, 23, Travis Hough, 35, and Donna Kellogg, 32, all of Oakland; Sara Hoda, 30, of Walnut Creek, Calif.; Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32, of Hayward, Calif.; and Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, of Coronado, Calif.
Authorities withheld the name of an eighth victim, a 17-year-old boy, because he was a minor.
The names of the additional three victims will be released sometime Monday morning.
Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department, said the majority of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, but that some were teenagers.
Kelly said the district attorney's office has sent a team of criminal investigators to work alongside the sheriff's arson task force and the Oakland Police Department.
The investigators are working to uncover any potential criminal activity that may have led to the blaze.
"We have 36 families, not only grieving for their lost ones, but also they want to have answers and we as a city collectively are working to find those answers," said Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson. "We want to provide answers not only for the families, but for our community."
The Police Department, she said, is reviewing its body camera footage and the number of calls made to the locations as well as the types of calls made, Watson said.
"Let's say we came to this location and there were some concerns whether it is a criminal concern or whether it's a violation, we may have captured that in our body worn camera footage," she said.
The department, she said, is also working with city's planning and building department as well as the Alameda County District Attorney.
"We have a lot of moving parts to this and we will certainly find answers to all of these questions.... We want to do a very thorough investigation," Watson said.
Structural engineers will examine the building Monday to determine the best solution for continuing recovery operations. Firefighters expect to re-enter the building between noon and 2 p.m. to continue their search, Drayton said. They are expecting rain on Wednesday, but she said their search efforts will continue to move in a steady and methodical pace.
Officials have said the warehouse had been the subject of a city code enforcement investigation at the time of the fire due to complaints about health and safety issues. Some former residents described it as a cluttered "death trap" lacking fire sprinklers.
With identities of the victims slow to emerge, social media outlets provided the connection for family and friends from around the world, allowing them to share hospital numbers, compile a list of possible victims and express their shock and disbelief.
"Oh my god, Sara Hoda is missing in this fire," Carol Crewdson wrote about a friend who had texted that she was going to the party and whose truck was found parked outside the venue.
But for some friends and loved ones, the unanswered phone calls, texts and Facebook messages provided the answer they never wanted to hear.
David Gregory said he thought his daughter was staying overnight at her boyfriend's house when she didn't come home Friday night. Gregory said he had not known that Michela, a 20-year-old honor roll student at San Francisco State, had gone to a concert at the warehouse with her boyfriend.
Gregory had stopped by the Alameda County sheriff's station Sunday looking for information and was asked to return with some trace of his daughter's DNA, such as strands of hair from a comb or brush.
"Try to put yourself in our shoes," he said. "You know there was a fire. And that she was attending that event. Then you see footage of the building on fire, knowing that everybody in there is being burned alive. It's the worst way to go ... there is no worse way."
The tragedy took a personal turn for responders when they learned that the son of an Alameda County sheriff's deputy was among those who died.
"This tragedy has hit very close to home for our agency," Kelly said. "We're still dealing with that as we continue to deal with the other victims."
The lack of a complete list of victims fueled an atmosphere of dread for some.
Cory Grimes said that when she discovered that her roommate, Jennifer Mendiola, had gone to the concert and was missing, she felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. Grimes said her hands were shaking so badly that she was unable to send messages. She checked a Facebook memorial page that listed Mendiola as a victim. But there was no proof.
"There's a lot of misinformation right now, and that makes it hurt more," Grimes said.
The building was leased by a group calling itself the Satya Yuga Collective, managed by Derick Almena. Almena, 46, who lived on the second floor of the warehouse with his wife, considered himself a "realms creator" and built found-object sculptures and stage sets for musical gatherings.
On their social media sites, the couple posted pictures of mannequins hung upside down, colorful tapestries on the floor and wall, Hindu art, furniture from Almena's travels to Bali and large, exposed wooden beams throughout the building.
On the first floor of the warehouse, a half-dozen RVs had been parked to provide living spaces for other residents. It had become a destination for traveling artists looking for a place to crash in the Bay Area, where affordable digs are notoriously difficult to find.
"It's a big ripple that's affected the entire community. It's a huge tragedy; it's a huge loss for people in Oakland. And there's a lot behind it," said Graham Patzner, who lives with his parents in Oakland and believes his friend, Nicholas Walrath, had attended the show. "Artists are constantly struggling to survive in this city because we're all getting kicked out."
The closely knit nature of the community only compounded the tragedy for some.
Isador Vorpahl posted Facebook messages to 10 friends who were missing. "I hope it's not true, I hope you all are safe and alive," Vorpahl wrote. "I want you all to know the ways you've touched my life."
Jesse James Alexander, 24, said he believes that three of his friends died in the fire. He said he learned about the blaze on Saturday morning when he received a text from someone making sure he was alive.
"These are all our friends. These are all our family. And they're all gone," Alexander wrote.
Richardine Bartee said she has been numb since learning that her friend Alex Ghassan was among the missing. Ghassan had recently moved to Oakland and was the father of two young daughters. On Twitter and Instagram accounts in his name, Ghassan appeared to have posted a video of the event, which he captioned: "Oakland reminds me of #JerseyCity so much at times."
Facebook also drew worried notes from parents abroad. A panicked parent searched Facebook for answers in Finnish: "Any news of Hanna Ruax," posted Yrjo Timonen, whose Facebook page lists Helsinki as home. "She is my daughter."
On Sunday night, Timonen posted, "Ei sanoja. Vain suuri suru." ("No words. Just a great sorrow.")
For Grace Lovio, who said she was worried sick about her boyfriend, Jason McCarty, the silence was too great. She had been studying in France and ditched her final exam to fly from Paris to San Francisco.
They had last spoken on Friday, she said, and on Saturday she woke up to find that he had sent her a Facebook message: "Love you a zilliopzazillion," he wrote.
During a tearful plane ride, she carried with her a diary filled with poetry McCarty had written for her.
On Sunday, she was en route to her father's home in Concord to meet McCarty's parents, who are from Texas, for the first time.
"Until we know for sure that he's gone, I'm still holding on to some hope," Lovio said. "I'm pretty scared, though."
Other notes were more plaintive.
"I'm a friend of Jason McCarty and am worried sick," Robin Voss wrote on the Facebook page for the event. "Any news?"
And one was less equivocal.
"Prayers for the family will be greatly appreciated," Ginger Kellogg Jimenez wrote after being notified that the body of her sister, Donna Kellogg, had been found.
A "beautiful, giggly, wise person who will be very missed," wrote one of Kellogg's friends.
