Rave Tragedy

Brutal

This weighs heavy on my heart. 

Such joyful gatherings can turn deadly in the blink of an eye. 

A sober reminder to me to be aware of my surroundings (exits, etc) then let go and embrace the good things in life. 

10 years ago I would have been at that party or known half the people there. So sad. I'm seriously thinking of holing up and not going out until this fucking year just ends already

 So terribly sad.

Right around the corner from there, its near the Fruitvale BART station. Helicopters still buzzing the sky. So sad, my friend that lives within 1/4 mile fears she is going to know someone that perished in the flames.

>>> I'm seriously thinking of holing up and not going out until this fucking year just ends already<<<

If you do that your roof will cave in on you.

There's no way out of 2016 except to ride it out and hope for the best.

This is such a tragedy, and I'm really surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often, since really no matter how many exits & trained staff a venue has, when it's packed panic will always ensue if something like fire is happening, and when a crowd panics nothing is orderly or quick.

So sad for families of these young people just out for a good time.

On it goes.

Terrible tragedy.

So sad.  Some bad choices, pallets for stairs, one door.  So sad.

Awful. Sad for everyone.

At least they were high.

*toke*

Just heard 2 doors. 

24 confirmed dead.  Number will rise.

Very sad.

Dear Friernd and Former Drummer in one of my bands lost 2 friends.

NO evidence of them has turned up - they literally vanished.

this is why we have occupancy and capacity rules, and fire marshalls. very sobering knowing that this all could have been avoided. what a shame and loss of young lives.

The irony of course (if in fact this is irony, I'm never sure) is that if the rules had been enforced the hue & cry would have gone up about gentrification and strong arm tactics by the city in evicting "artists".

As it is many are criticizing the city for NOT shutting the place down, but of course in Oakland there are A LOT of funky living spaces that aren't up to code, and they can't close them all down.

This is mainly on the people who ran that place/took in the money from it, which seems to be that Ion dude and the owner of the building, who I'm sure will claim that he had no idea what was happening in his warehouse, but this is also on anyone who had a space there. There are reports from people who have spent time there of candles burning all over the place, parties and smoking all the time, etc.

I heard someone say that the electricity came from the business next door, and when a breaker switched off and the the power went out they'd have to wait until that business opened the next day to switch it back. I can only imagine the jerry-rigged outlets that would be needed to get power to all the personal little spaces. I'll be surprised if the cause doesn't turn out to be an electrical overload or malfunction because of improper wiring/too much power from too few outlets.

That place was an obvious time bomb, and anyone with half a brain who spent any time there should have known what would inevitably happen sooner or later.

But as I said in another thread, especially when we're young we don't think anything bad will ever happen, but in this case SOMEBODY (owner & manager) should have been able to see it and deal with it, one way or another.

But that would have cost money, and it wouldn't have been cool, and now somebody is going to pay for this bigtime, and that will be much more than a little intelligent precaution would have cost. 

From 93 to 08 I spent just about every weekend in a place like that. Most of the time promoters and owners took reasonable precautions to keep everyone safe. Let’s also be real about bringing those places up to code. None of the people that  choose to live in those places would ever be able to afford what bringing a place up to code means. Now the crackdown will commence and the bay area diaspora will accelerate.  This warehouse wasn’t representative of most places. One of my friends said he did sound there for one event and swore never to go back. That said no one will make that distinction now. They will all be shut down.  

The wife and kid of the guy who ran the collective were staying in a hotel.

Tragedy all around. I can't imagine losing a son or daughter to this horror. Unspeakable.

I hope people go to jail. 

No reason to say "artists" as if the people who lived and created there were posers.

Rolling Stone ran shots of the interior...reminded me of so many places I've visited and lived in. I feel, and I think many other people feel as well, that this could have happened to any of us.

Just a total fucking tragedy.

Just a note, from what I understand it was not a "rave", but a semi-monthly party including electronic music.  Ie, more of a regularly scheduled community event than the big extravaganzas people associate with the modern concept of rave. Sucks, because it makes the numbers of deceased even more crushing and horrifying.  Awful.

I remember one similar space in SF that I used to frequent where all the "rooms" were platforms dangling from poles and connected by some very rickety stairs zig-zagging all over, with everyone at different heights and stuff.  Like an elaborate treehouse inside.  My main objection was that waking up at night and having to pee was gonna be a hassle for the ladies.  Don't even get me started on the time Survival Research Labs doused my leather jacket with gasoline prior to spraying fire all over the place.  Good times but later I was like, hmmmmmmm I should be more careful.

I too am predicting some kind of spaceheater related malfunction. 

Also, that Dereck Ion guy needs to stop giving interviews. I get that he is upset, but stop.