Oakland warehouse fire: Facebook post by Ghost Ship organizer stirs anger
OAKLAND (KTVU) -- The man who managed the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland's Fruitvale District that went up in flames this weekend is generating outrage on social media after a post on Facebook in which he said he lost everything.
The Facebook post by Derick Ion had generated 2,500 comments as of Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., many of which were very critical of Ion and his reaction to the fire.
"Selfish (expletive)," commented one Facebook user named Dan Barnes.
"You're dead man (expletive)," one Facebook user named Craig Milder commented.
Other responses: "What a disgusting piece of (expletive)" and "There is a special place in Hell for people like you!"
According to court records, Ion is 46 years old and his last name is Alamena.
In the post, Ion wrote "Everything I worked so hard for is gone. Blessed that my children and Micah were at a hotel safe and sound.
Ion organized the artists who worked in the building, which was named the Ghost Ship Collective.
According to court records, Ion was on probation for receiving stolen property after he pled guilty in January to the misdemeanor.
Online records listed the building's owner as Nar Siu Chor. The Associated Press could not locate a telephone number for her Saturday. Efforts to reach her at other Oakland addresses associated with her were not successful.
The death toll from a fire that tore through the warehouse where a late-night dance party climbed to 33 on Sunday as firefighters painstakingly combed through rubble for others believed to still be missing.
Less than half of the charred remains of the partly collapsed structure had been searched, and crews clearing debris were expected to find more bodies as they advanced, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said.
Officials said they have identified seven people who were killed. Kelly said those killed range in age from teenagers to 30-plus years old.
The building known as the "Ghost Ship" had been carved into artist studios and was an illegal home for a rotating cast of a dozen or more people, according to former denizens who said it was a cluttered death trap with few exits, piles of wood and a mess of snaking electric cords.
"If you were going there for a party, you wouldn't be aware of the maze that you have to go through to get out," said Danielle Boudreaux, a former frind of the couple who ran the warehouse.
As many as 100 people were there for a party Friday night when the fire broke out just before midnight. Fire officials were still investigating the cause of the blaze, but they said clutter fueled the flames, there were no sprinklers inside and few exits to escape.
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