There are artist's lofts in old warehouses in most [View all]

[MineralMan]

large cities. Some of them are legal, inspected, and up to building codes, but many are not. Some cities, typically, do not proactively go and inspect industrial buildings like these. Even if they know they are being used for other purposes, they often look the other way when people remodel them on an ad hoc basis. Even when there are complaints and inspections reveal building code issues, enforcement measures are half-hearted in many places.

Sadly, that was the case in Oakland, CA, and many people lost their lives in that disastrous fire. They didn't know they were going to a party in an unsafe building. That was the last thing on their minds. We don't know exactly how the fire started, but it did start, and the people inside could not escape the building because of its many flaws and hazards.

Artists need places to work that they can afford. There is no question about that. However, cities and other jurisdictions have a responsibility to ensure that such buildings are safe for the ways people are using them. Holding parties on a mezzanine in a warehouse that has no safe stairway is unsafe, by definition. Welded steel windows with reinforced glass in them, and that only can be opened to a small angle for ventilation cannot provide a safe way to escape from an upstairs open area. Safety could have been established by replacing windows on both ends with exits and outside steel stairways or fire escapes.

None of that was done. Nobody insisted that they be done. Many of the people who had spaces in that building didn't know that their areas were unsafe, either. Electrical circuits were, no doubt, overloaded and inadequate for the way they were being used. Partitions did not reach the ceiling, which allowed fire to spread the full length and width of the building quickly and in a deadly way.

We often object to heavy-handed enforcement of building codes. It's expensive to prepare an industrial building for occupation, even for artist's studios. And those studios are ALWAYS slept in by the people who use them. Always, no matter what the rules are. But, failure to enforce sensible building codes that help prevent disastrous fires isn't tyranny. It's a matter of public safety. There are reasons for those codes.

What happened in Oakland is a horror-story. It could have been prevented, but was not. Many people have blame in this.