OAKLAND, Calif. _ Fire and recovery crews Sunday continued the dark task of milling through rubble from a warehouse fire in which at least 30 people died and promises more bad news.
The death toll "will go up," said Sgt. Ray Kelly, spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. Searchers worked 12-hour shifts moving debris "bucket by bucket," from the inside of the building known as the "Ghost Ship."
The county coroner confirmed six more deaths Sunday afternoon after authorities announced in the morning that the toll had reached 24.
"That is an astronomical number," Kelly said. "We're still not done. ... they are working and pulling this building apart and dissecting it so we are really starting to get deeper into the building as we do that we continue to find more victims."
To help identify victims, the sheriff's office asked that relatives of the missing preserve sources of DNA.
"That could be hairbrushes, combs, or toothbrushes," said Capt. Melanie Ditzenberger of the coroner's office.
"It's a terrible thing to have to say that and to have to come out here and do that but that's what we are left to deal with here," Kelly said.
He said they are "using shovels and buckets and sifting through debris, so that's what's taking so long."
Fire crews cut a hole in the east wall and kept the rest of the building upright with tools from the city Public Works Department, and went through about 20 percent of the building overnight, Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Melinda Drayton said. Crews found three more victims on the east side of the building and 10 more in the center of it.
They have separated the areas into quadrants and continued to remove debris and bodies Sunday.
"It was quiet, it was heartbreaking," Drayton said of the overnight work. "What we were able to accomplish in 12 hours was a phenomenal feat."
The identification process continued to be painstakingly slow, and that it could take weeks before authorities certify the identities of every victim. Some of them had wallets or other forms of identification on them, he said, but others will haveto be identified with dental records or DNA.
"This is very hard work, and it's very slow," Kelly said. "We will be here for days and days to come."
"We anticipate the number of victims will rise," he said.
Several onlookers milled about outside police tape Sunday morning as crews worked, some of them trying to come to grips with the enormity of lost life.
"I just needed some closure," said Josh Hawes, whose former girlfriend is presumed to be among the dead. "Also, I'm trying to get whatever pertinent information I can for the family."
Hawes said he has seen the video of metal ladders melting outside the dance party, and that he's familiar with the house party scene and its questionable safety.
"If it's that hot outside the building, what's it like inside?" he said.
The blaze broke out at an electronic music party at a Fruitvale district live-work space occupied by an arts collective.
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(Staff writers Harry Harris, Sam Richards, Malaika Fraley, Katrina Cameron, Erin Baldassari, Tracy Seipel, and Matthias Gafni contributed to this report.)
