U.S. district attorney vows to probe Oakland fire

A local prosecutor vowed to thoroughly look into the Friday night warehouse fire in Oakland, California, which has killed 36 people as of Monday afternoon.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, appearing in public for the first time since the deadly fire which erupted during a dance party, told a press briefing that investigators would try to find criminal evidence and those liable.

Charges to be brought against those liable, O'Malley said, could be homicide or involuntary manslaughter.

Declining to go into details and reassuring her determination to seek justice for the victims and their families, she said experts would examine debris from the two-story warehouse and extra charges would be possible.

Investigators had already interviewed "several people" related to the fire, she added.

At the same briefing, Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern said of the 36 bodies recovered from the scene, including three added to the total on Monday morning, 33 had been "tentatively identified."

Among them, three were foreign nationals from Finland, South Korea and Guatemala, and their families had been notified, Ahern said.

Noting that about 75 percent of the site had been cleaned up, Ahern said earlier "we can't locate any other deceased victims" and "we are not anticipating any more huge numbers."

However, three days after the disaster took place, nobody knows how many people were inside the building.

After the worst fire in Oakland's history, Mayor Libby Schaaf and other city officials faced criticism that the city had ignored complaints from residents about the specific building.

Schaaf said priorities for now are to recover the victims and help their families.

The warehouse, known as "The Oakland Ghost Ship," was only permitted to be used for storage. However, the structure in an industrial neighborhood of East Oakland was converted into art studios, a party venue and probably a residence.

Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed said on Saturday there was no sign of fire alarms and no evidence of a sprinkler system.

The fire started at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday (0730 GMT Saturday) and continued into Saturday morning, trapping people at an underground music event.

Overnight, authorities have released the names of seven victims that had been definitely identified. All of them were in their 20s and 30s and Californians, including four Oakland residents and two others from nearby cities. The name of an additional victim, a 17-year-old minor, was withheld.

An internal wall of the building was found unstable on Sunday night, forcing firefighters to stop searching for victims for several hours. The operation resumed in the morning, and a big crane was brought in to help with the work. Endi