Death toll in Oakland warehouse fire rises to 36

San Francisco: The death toll from a fire at a California warehouse crowded with dance party revelers rose to 36 Monday as fire officials announced they had suspended work because the structure was at risk of collapsing.

Alameda County Deputy Sheriff Tya Modeste said 11 of the 36 bodies recovered so far at the site in Oakland have been positively identified. Previously, the toll had stood at 33.

The fire erupted Friday night in a warehouse known as the Oakland Ghost Ship as a rave attended by between 50 and 100 people was under way.

It spread quickly through the structure, trapping partygoers whose bodies were found scattered through the building´s mazelike interior.

Reed said firefighters have reached an area in the back of the building where they believe the fire originated.

The area was cordoned off and work was suspended there late Sunday so that federal investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could gain access.

But all recovery work was halted shortly after midnight after crews noticed that a parapet atop the building´s front exterior wall was leaning in.

In a macabre indication of what the fire may have done to the bodies, authorities are asking relatives to preserve hairbrushes and toothbrushes to assist in matching DNA samples.

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.

The victims identified so far have ranged 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, said Sergeant Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff´s Department, declining to reveal which countries.

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

A dozen bodies were found in an area in the middle of the building, Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Melinda Drayton said, describing how debris was being removed bucket by bucket.

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.