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> 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> A fire on Friday night at a warehouse party in Oakland, California has left at least nine dead, according to the Alameda County sheriff's department, with another 25 people reported as missing or unaccounted for.

The fire broke out in a warehouse converted into an artists' studio and DIY event space called the Oakland Ghost Ship, during a party featuring artists from 100% Silk, a Silver Lake-based dance and electronic label run by wife and husband team Amanda and Britt Brown. The 100% Silk artists scheduled to play at the event were Golden Donna, Cherushii and Nackt, along with other musicians and DJs including Russell E. L. Butler, Obsidian Blade, Piano Rain and RADAR.

Golden Donna, the solo project of Wisconsin-based producer Joel Shanahan, published a Facebook post this morning reading in part, "Joel is safe but like many people he is heartbroken and has several friends among the missing." Chelsea Faith aka Cherushii and Johnny Igaz aka Nackt are among those still listed as missing.

The fire started around 11:30 p.m. near what Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed described as a "makeshift stairway," according to East Bay Times. Eyewitnesses described black smoke pouring down the stairs as people tried to escape.

Firefighters have been unable to get full access to the building because the fire rendered it unstable. They expect the death toll to rise and possibly include "dozens of fatalities," Alameda County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly told reporters.

The event organizers could not be reached for comment, but in a post on the 100% Silk Facebook page, label owner Amanda Brown wrote: "What happened in Oakland is an unbelievable tragedy, a nightmare scenario. Britt and I are beside ourselves, utterly devastated. We are a very tight community of artists and we are all praying, sending love and condolences to everyone involved and their families."

A fire relief fund for victims and their families has been set up on YouCaring.org by the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts and has already raised over $56,000.

This is a developing story. We will have more updates as they become available. </s> Oakland, California (CNN) After a day's worth of investigations, Oakland authorities were continuing to search for answers on Sunday regarding the fast-spreading deadly fire that engulfed a warehouse during an electronic dance concert.

They want to know about the rickety stairway. They want to know about the lack of permits. They also want to know: Could this tragedy have been avoided?

At least nine people died in the fire as scores of others escaped Friday night. But the fates of more than two dozen people were still unknown Saturday evening one day after the blaze that gutted the two-story warehouse.

Friends and family used every available tool -- phones and social media among them -- in the frantic effort to find out whether their loved ones were alive. People like 27-year-old painter Bob Mulé, who lost his friend to the fire, were left to grapple with the nightmare of that fiery night.

"I felt my skin melting," Mulé said. "I tried to save my friend but I had to leave him."

The Oakland Fire Department fears the fire may have burned up to 40 people in a structure that housed artists' studios and stored so many things that the housing department had notified property owners of violations for trash and debris.

'You could feel the heat of the flames'

"You could feel the heat of the flames," he told CNN. "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."

Freelance journalist Sam Lefebvre said many people were just getting there as the fire started since the dance party was supposed to go very late.

Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Graves said 40 out of an estimated 100 people may have died. However, he cautioned that some people may have ended up at hospitals or made it out alive with friends. Later on, officials said the death toll might be in the dozens.

Initially, authorities recovered nine bodies and rushed their fingerprints to a lab in an attempt to identify the victims, an Alameda County Sheriff's Office coroner spokesman said.

Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said emergency responders found most victims on the second floor given that the pallet stairway had become inacessible.

Evanofski was one of the lucky ones in a building filled with artists. His friend, who did nails, wasn't as fortunate, he said.

"She is one of the most magical people I've ever met," he said..

Calling the fire an "immense tragedy," Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf pledged to get a "full accounting" that could be shared with the public as quickly as possible.

There was another question on authorities' minds: How did the first start in the first place?

The building is a "sort of live/work art space with a lot of old decorations and furniture," Lefebvre, the freelance journalist, told CNN. Photos posted on a blog showed elaborate wooden structures inside the building before the fire. Some of them include beds and living room furniture.

Reed described the interior as one that had partitions that divided space among several artists. She said she has heard reports that some people may have been living there but it remained unclear how many people lived there.

"Inside is just a wide assortment of just ... everything. Furniture, mannequins, statues. Just a lot of stuff inside," she told CNN.

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.

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

A city inspector tried to enter the warehouse November 17 but was unable to make a visual inspection inside, Ranelletti said.

In addition, firefighters found no evidence of sprinklers in the warehouse.

CNN has reached out to the property owners for comment. Johnna Watson, Oakland police spokeswoman, said the building is not deemed a crime scene but it is still early in the investigation.

'It's too unsafe' for emergency responders

To find loved ones, people used the event's Facebook page Saturday to post names of potential show attendees. For those who survived, they also shared their names to show they were safe.

Twenty-five people are unaccounted for, as reported by people who either escaped the fire or believe they knew someone who was there, Reed said.

Terry Lightfoot, a representative of Oakland's Highland Hospital, told CNN the hospital received two patients and one of them has been discharged. Lightfoot said he did not know the condition of the patient who remained hospitalized.

Firefighters have not been able to search the entire building, where the roof collapsed onto the second floor and parts continued down onto the ground level.

Crews, possibly with heavy equipment, first have to shore up walls and make sure the building is safe.

'I had to let him go'

For Bob Mulé, the warehouse wasn't just the site of a large dance party, it was both his home and his community.

Mulé told CNN more than 20 people living in the warehouse, which he described as a "collective artists' community," paid rent and were all involved in the creation of the space.

On Friday night, Mule 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, which led him to investigate the source.

After seeing the flames, Mulé ran to find a fire extinguisher. He found one, and tried to pull the pin, but struggled mightily. After a little while, he turned back to save his camera and laptop.

At that point, Mulé 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. He tried to save him.

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

More than 40 people gathered Saturday at Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland for a vigil. Organizers asked attendees to light a candle at the end of the service, saying flames caused pain and destruction "but tonight we light the flame for good and for peace."

Now, as loved ones await answers in the coming days, Mulé must wrestle with the reality of losing a friend he couldn't save and the likelihood that the official deatTheh toll may climb. </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. (Reuters) - A fire that erupted during a dance party at a warehouse used by an artists' collective in Oakland, California, killed at least nine and left about two dozen people missing, raising fears that more bodies would be found inside, authorities said on Saturday.

City and Alameda County officials said they expected the death toll to climb once the burned-out ruins of the two-story building were shored up and recovery teams were able to safely enter the structure.

The blaze started at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday in the city's Fruitvale district, a mostly Latino area that is also home to many artists living and working in converted lofts.

The cause of the blaze and exact number of casualties remained undetermined, said Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed, who called it the worst single-structure fire she had seen in her career.

Still, nine fatalities had been confirmed, and authorities were working to account for "a couple of dozen" other people and were "expecting the worst," Sergeant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the county sheriff, told an afternoon news conference.

The remains of only one of the nine confirmed dead had been recovered as of Saturday because the warehouse was still too unstable to enter, said Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann.

He said about a dozen people survived the blaze, including one individual who went to a local hospital for treatment. The party was taking place on the second floor of the building, which had just two exits, at the time the blaze began, officials said.

The warehouse roof collapsed onto the second floor of the building during the fire, according to authorities, and portions of the second floor caved in on the first story.

Authorities said they did not suspect arson, but investigators want to find out if the building, which was partitioned into artists' studios, had a history of building code violations.

The city had received complaints about unpermitted construction at the building and opened an investigation, but an inspector failed to gain access to the structure on Nov. 7, and the inquiry remained open, said the city's buildings and planning chief, Darin Ranelletti.

He said the city was aware of reports that people were living there, but no permits had been issued for habitation. It was unclear, he said, whether special permits would be needed for the artists who had set up shop inside.

Many of the victims were young people in their 20s or 30s, authorities said.

"It's just so hard to accept that some really wonderful people's lives got cut short," said Jenny Yang, 34, an artist and activist who was waiting for news of missing friends at Eli's, an Oakland bar that opened early as a gathering spot.

Video footage posted on social media showed flames shooting from the structure, which was adorned with elaborate graffiti and colorful murals, as fire vehicles pumped plumes of water and heavy smoke engulfed the neighborhood.

Earlier, first responders were able to identify the nine fatalities visually as they entered the building, according to Kelly. He said local hospitals were being inundated with calls but had not treated many patients.

Authorities have said they did not know how many people were at the party or how many lived on the premises.

A Facebook event page showed 176 people planned to attend the party, which featured electronic music performances.

Golden Donna, Cherushii and Nackt were among the acts scheduled to perform as part of the Los Angeles-based 100% Silk label's West Coast tour, Variety reported.

Parents and others shared contact information on the page and asked anyone with information about the missing to call. "ANY information please!" wrote a woman looking for her son.

At a sheriff’s station not far from the fire, about a dozen people were waiting on Saturday for updates from authorities.

“I don’t have high hopes,” said a woman who had four friends among the missing, declining to give her name. “We’ve just spent the night calling hospitals and listening to police scanners.”

The warehouse contained makeshift artist studios carved out with curtains and other partitions, the fire chief said. The interior was cluttered with "a flea market of items," she said. There was no evidence of any smoke detectors in the building.

The structure had only a single point of entry or exit from the second floor, where most of the dead were found, the chief said. A makeshift staircase appeared to be constructed from pallets. "It's the worst case scenario we feared because it's an older warehouse," Doug, a man who only gave his first name, said as he waited for news of people who may have been inside. </s> 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, Calif. — Teenagers, the son of a local sheriff's deputy and young artists who loved music are among the dozens of people who died when a fire broke out at an underground dance party in a warehouse that visitors called a death trap.

The victims of a party Friday night in Oakland included 17-year-olds and people from Europe and Asia, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said. Authorities have recovered 33 bodies, with more expected as crews continue to clear debris.

The city of Oakland identified some of the victims as Cash Askew, 22, David Clines, 35, Travis Hough, 35, and Donna Kellogg, 32, all of Oakland; Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, of Coronado, Sara Hoda, 30, of Walnut Creek, and Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32, of Hayward.

Officials said they had identified an eighth victim, but they were not releasing the name because the person was 17 years old.

Kelly also revealed the death of a deputy's son at a news conference Sunday, but he did not release the name.

The dental student said Wadsworth always looked out for her, doing the little things that would make her life easier. He would organize her messy files and give her advice and fix her computer if she needed help, Tasoff said. He bought video games because he knew she loved them, and he would often watch her play, she said.

"Usually he'd say let's play video games and then he'd say no, I just want to watch you play. He'd make me food. He took really good care of me. He was like my big brother," she said, sobbing.

Andy Kershaw, a DJ, has several friends missing from the party, including his wife, photographer Amanda Allen, and a fellow DJ, Johnny Igaz. He said he had not heard from authorities as of early Sunday.

Kershaw had never heard of the warehouse, and he was appalled by the crowded and unsafe conditions. "The whole point of a warehouse party is it's supposed to be an empty warehouse," he said.

Igaz was reportedly playing a set when the fire broke out. He listed as a record buyer at Green Apple Books and Music in San Francisco. His Facebook page was littered with tearful posts from friends who called him a beautiful soul and a true friend.

Yuri Kundin of San Francisco said he is awaiting word about his friends, Alex Ghassan and Hanna Henriikka Ru . He hasn't heard from the couple for the last few days and has plastered notes looking for them on social media. Henriikka Ruax is from Finland. </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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Recovery efforts continue in the US city of Oakland, California, after a fire at a music party in a converted warehouse kills at least nine people with dozens missing.