OAKLAND, Calif. – The Latest on a deadly fire in a converted warehouse in Oakland, California (all times local):

Officials in Oakland, California, say the death toll has risen to 24 from a fire that ripped through a converted warehouse.

Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly announced the new figure early Sunday. He says officials anticipate that the number will rise.

Oakland Battalion Fire Chief Melinda Drayton says fire crews worked through the night to clear debris from the gutted building.

The converted warehouse was known as the "Ghost Ship." Those who lived there or visited often say it was an artist workspace and illegal home for a rotating group of a dozen or more residents.

Firefighters struggled to get to bodies in the charred rubble Saturday.

The fire started about 11:30 p.m. Friday during an electronic dance music party. Officials believed 50 to 100 people may have been in attendance. </s> OAKLAND: The death toll from a fire at a California warehouse where a rave party was taking place rose to 33, with the authorities saying they had no idea how many more bodies they may find.

“When we started this investigation, if you would have told us we would have 33 victims, we wouldn’t have believed you,” Sergeant Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department told reporters, adding that crews had searched less than half of the gutted building.

“I don’t know how many people are left in there. We have no idea how many people were in that building that night… We’re expecting the worst and hoping for the best in regards to how many more victims we find.”

The fire in Oakland, near San Francisco, broke out about 11:30 pm Friday (0730 GMT Saturday) at the cluttered warehouse where artists and students worked and lived, even though the structure wasn’t licensed for such use.

The electronic dance music party, with between 50 and 100 guests, also took place without a permit.

Although the cause of the fast-moving blaze remains under investigation, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the district attorney had opened a criminal investigation as a precaution to preserve options as the case unfolds.

“You have to understand that the scope of this tragedy is tremendous,” she said. “We have many, many witnesses to interview. We are in the process of doing that.”

Eight victims have been identified based on fingerprints so far, ranging in age from 17 to 35.

Some were from Europe and Asia, and the Oakland authorities are working with the State Department to contact foreign governments, Kelly said, declining to reveal which countries.

Bodies were found scattered throughout the warehouse, known locally as Oakland Ghost Ship.

“We’re finding people throughout the entire square footage of that structure,” Kelly said. “It’s so random. We’re finding victims where we least expect it.”

The authorities on Sunday asked relatives of the missing to “eliminate future delays” in identifying victims by preserving such items as hairbrushes and toothbrushes for DNA samples.

“We will ask for them as we need them,” said Captain Melanie Ditzenberger of the sheriff’s department coroner’s bureau.

Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed has said the interior of the warehouse was maze-like, “filled end-to-end with furniture, whatnot, collections.”

“There wasn’t a real entry or exit path,” she said.

Images published online show artwork, pianos and wooden objects throughout the building, which helps explain why the blaze raced through the structure despite firefighters’ arrival within three minutes.

Firefighters also said the building appeared to have had no sprinklers or smoke detectors.

Officials said the roof collapsed onto the second floor, which was connected to the ground floor only by a makeshift system of wooden pallets.

A dozen bodies were found in an area in the middle of the building, Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Melinda Drayton said.

Firefighters had taken every precaution to treat human remains with respect as they cleared debris bucket by bucket, she added.

The fire was the deadliest incident in Oakland since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in northern California, which killed 63 people.

The deadliest nightclub fire in the United States in recent decades occurred in 2003, when pyrotechnic effects by the rock band Great White set off an inferno at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island, killing 100 people.

Oakland, a city of 420,000, was once deemed largely unsafe but is now home to a more affluent population attracted by affordable rents and proximity to San Francisco. AFP </s> OAKLAND, Calif. - The death toll in a fire that devastated an Oakland, California, loft building during a weekend dance party has climbed to 30 people and is expected to rise further as recovery teams push deeper into the charred ruin, authorities said on Sunday.

The remains of the 30 victims were found as authorities sifted through the debris-filled shell of the two-story converted warehouse being used by an artists' collective.

"That is an astronomical number," Sergeant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, told a news briefing. "We're still not done."

Kelly warned earlier that the number of fatalities would likely rise in what fire officials called the deadliest blaze in the Bay Area city's history. He said names of the victims would be released "in the coming hours" after their families were notified.

"In regards to the amount of people that are still missing, yes, it's a significant number, Kelly said.

The fire erupted about 11:30 p.m. on Friday (0730 GMT on Saturday) during the party featuring electronic dance music that dozens of people attended.

Only 20 percent of the building had been searched in the past 12 hours, Melinda Drayton, battalion chief at the Oakland Fire Department, said on Sunday morning. She said the origin of the fire had yet to be determined and the cause was unknown.

The recovery operation had been delayed for hours until workers could enter safely. The roof had collapsed onto the second floor and in some spots, the second story had fallen onto the first. (Additional reporting by Tim Mclaughlin in Chicago; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Alan Crosby and Peter Cooney) </s> The death toll in the fire which ripped through a late-night rave in California has risen to 24.

Officials said they expect to find more bodies as the search continues – with a “significant number” of people still missing.

Only 20 per cent of the building has so far been searched after fire crews worked through the night to clear debris. The search for bodies is likely to continue for another 48 hours.

The converted warehouse known as the ‘Ghost Ship’, in Oakland, California, was being used to host a dance party when the fire broke out at 11.30pm on Friday (7.30am on Saturday UK time).

It is so far unclear what caused the fire in the building. Officials believe there were between 50 to 100 guests inside at the time.

Former residents who lived at the warehouse said the building had few exits and a makeshift staircase.

Sergeant Ray Kelly of Alameda County sheriff’s department said the blaze could have been sparked by a cigarette.

He said people either escaped from the building or died inside, where the only way down from the second story was via a stairwell made of wooden pallets.

Sgt Kelly added: “We know there are bodies in there that we can't get to - that have been seen but not recovered.” </s> OAKLAND, California — Recovery teams have found 24 bodies in the charred ruins of an Oakland, California, loft building after a fire broke out during a weekend dance party, and the death toll is expected to rise, authorities said Sunday.

Sergeant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said two dozen bodies were located as authorities sifted through the debris-filled shell of the two-story building, which was used by an artists’ collective.

He said the death toll would likely rise in what fire officials called the deadliest blaze in the city’s history.

Only 20 percent of the building had been searched in the past 12 hours, said Melinda Drayton, battalion chief at the Oakland Fire Department.

Firefighters have gone through the building searching the debris, “bucket by bucket,” Drayton told a news conference on Sunday morning.

“It was quiet, it was heartbreaking,” she said. “This will be a long and arduous process.”

Authorities said on Saturday that nine bodies were initially discovered inside the shell of the structure and that about 25 people were believed to be missing. On Sunday, officials did not update the number of people who were not accounted for.

The fire erupted at about 11:30 p.m. local time Friday during the party featuring electronic dance music that dozens of people attended.

The recovery operation and investigation into how the blaze started had been delayed for hours until workers could enter safely on Saturday evening.

The roof had collapsed into the second floor and in some spots, the second story had fallen into the first. </s> At least nine people died in a blaze that broke out during a party in a warehouse late Friday night in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to fire officials.

Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloche-Reed says at least another 13 people are unaccounted for as of Saturday morning.

The fire started about 11:30 p.m. Friday. It tore through the building during an event featuring musician Golden Donna’s 100% Silk West Coast tour, the East Bay Times reports.

Oakland firefighters tweeted video of flames pushing through the roof.

Fire officials said the building had no sprinklers.

Authorities told KTVU-TV about 50 people were inside the building, which houses a group of artists and their studios.

“It was too hot, too much smoke, I had to get out of there,” Bob Mule, a photographer and artist who lives at the building and suffered minor burns, told the East Bay Times. “I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work.”

People used a Facebook page Saturday to post and seek information on family and friends who may have been in the building.

Oakland police urged those concerned about missing people to call the Alameda County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau at 510-382-3000.

The office said the coroners were also at the scene Saturday morning and unavailable for comment. </s> OAKLAND, Calif. — At least nine people died in a blaze that broke out during a party in a warehouse late Friday night in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to fire officials.

Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloche-Reed says at least another 13 people are unaccounted for as of this morning.

The fire started about 11:30 p.m. Friday. It tore through the building during an event featuring musician Golden Donna's 100% Silk West Coast tour, the East Bay Times reports.

Oakland firefighters tweeted video of flames pushing through the roof.

Fire officials said the building had no sprinklers.

Authorities told KTVU-TV about 50 people were inside the building, which houses a group of artists and their studios.

"It was too hot, too much smoke, I had to get out of there," Bob Mule, a photographer and artist who lives at the building and suffered minor burns, told the East Bay Times. "I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn't get the fire extinguisher to work."

People used a Facebook page Saturday to post and seek information on family and friends who may have been in the building.

Oakland police urged those concerned about missing people to call the Alameda County Sheriff's Coroner's Bureau at 510-382-3000.

The office said the coroners were also at the scene Saturday morning and unavailable for comment. </s> Oakland, California (CNN) Oakland authorities have already deemed the fire at an warehouse cum arts space to be one of the city's deadliest blazes ever. But the death toll is expected to rise as investigators slowly comb through the wreckage of the two-story building, officials said.

At least 33 people have been confirmed dead, including teenagers and a deputy's son, in a massive blaze that last Friday gutted a converted warehouse during an electronic dance party.

But less than a third of the building had been searched as of Sunday afternoon, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said in a news conference.

It could take weeks to identify victims through DNA and dental records, he said. Officials have asked victims' families to preserve their loved ones' personal belongings including hairbrushes and toothbrushes that could contain DNA samples. Kelly added that officials were also working with the transgender community to identify some of the victims.

"The scope of this tragedy is tremendous," Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Sunday.

One of deadliest fires ever in Oakland

The City of Oakland released the names of seven victims Sunday night. They were identified as Cash Askew, 22, David Cline, 35, Donna Kellogg, 32, Travis Hough, 35, all of Oakland; Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, of Coronado, California; Sara Hoda, 30, of Walnut Creek, California; and Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32, of Hayward, California. The name of an eighth victim, a 17-year-old minor, will not be released, the city said.

Oakland Battalion Fire Chief Melinda Drayton cautioned that the recovery search could be a long and arduous process as firefighters work to remove debris "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 be loaded into dump trucks and removed to an off-site location," she said.

Drayton, a 19-year veteran, called it one of the deadliest fires in the city's history -- including a 1991 fire in Oakland Hills that killed 25 people.

Officials said the roof collapsed onto the second floor. After that happened, parts of the second floor collapsed on to the first floor. Even after firefighters extinguished the blaze Saturday, they quickly deemed the building so unsafe that emergency responders couldn't enter as a precautionary measure.

'You could feel the heat of the flames'

By the time John Evanofski arrived at 31st Avenue, giant flames lit up the night sky amid the billows of black smoke.

"You could feel the heat of the flames," he said. "Most of us were crying or unable to react. It was so hot and so terrible knowing that so many of us were still inside."

A Facebook page created for the event became a forum for friends and family of the victims, who posted frantic messages seeking information about loved ones. Those who survived shared their names to show they were safe.

'I had to let him go'

For filmmaker and photographer Bob Mulé, the warehouse was both his home and his community.

Mulé, 27, said more than 20 people living in the warehouse paid rent and all helped in the creation of the space.

On Friday night, Mulé stopped upstairs to listen to some music he described as a "very tame setting." Afterward, he headed downstairs to work on a painting. From his studio, he smelled smoke.

After seeing the flames, Mulé ran to find a fire extinguisher. He found one, but could not open the pin. When Mulé turned back to save his camera and laptop, he spotted a fellow artist who called out for help. Mulé suspected that heavy-set artist had broken his ankle after falling from the second floor.

"I was pulling him out," said Mulé, who suffered burns from the fire. "The flames were too much. There was too much smoke and ... I had to let him go."

The Ghost Ship: A haven for artists in a gentrifying region

Photos posted online show an interior cluttered with drums, keyboards, guitars, clocks, ornate beds, plush sofas, mirrored dressers, tables, benches and artifacts. Exotic lamps hang from the ceiling, and paintings adorn some of the walls.

Darin Ranelletti, Oakland's interim director of planning and building, told reporters Saturday the city had only approved permits for the building to be used as a warehouse, not for residences. City officials also had not signed off on a special permit for the event, Ranelletti said. In addition, firefighters found no evidence of sprinklers in the warehouse.

Last month the warehouse's owners had received notification of city code violations for hazardous trash and debris, property records show. Officials had not yet completed an investigation into a November complaint about an illegal interior building structure.

'One of those Catch-22 situations'

Josette Melchor, executive director of Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, told CNN that most people familiar with Ghost Ship knew it had issues, that it was not quite up to code. So it goes for many live-work warehouses, as they struggle to accommodate demand from artists for affordable spaces. Fear of losing a home or displacing others keeps some people from reporting possible violations, she said.

"It's one of those Catch-22 situations. A lot of us knew it was unsafe and it could have been fine had there been a smaller amount of people," she said. "But when you start having big parties it crosses the line."

CNN has reached out to the property owners for comment. </s> The death toll from a fire which tore through a late-night electronic music party in California has increased to 24.

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The ferocity of the blaze at the converted warehouse in Oakland has made the charred structure difficult for emergency crews to search, and officials said they expect the death toll to increase further.

Oakland battalion fire chief Melinda Drayton said firefighters worked through the night to clear debris from the gutted building.

The fire started at about 11.30pm on Friday during the party, and it is believed up to 100 people may have been in attendance.

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At least nine people are killed and 40 are missing in a warehouse fire in Oakland, California.