Opinion

Oakland failed to learn lessons of Ghost Ship fire

Workers begin to stabilize the structure, on Fri. Mar. 31, 2017, by removing any loose debris that may be a falling hazard from the halfway house in West Oakland, Ca. that burned last Monday killing 4 people in the fire. less Workers begin to stabilize the structure, on Fri. Mar. 31, 2017, by removing any loose debris that may be a falling hazard from the halfway house in West Oakland, Ca. that burned last Monday killing 4 people in ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Oakland failed to learn lessons of Ghost Ship fire 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The nation’s deadliest structure fire in more than a decade should have been enough to shake up Oakland’s lackadaisical approach to building safety. Moreover, in the weeks after 36 perished in the illegally converted Ghost Ship warehouse, there were repeated warnings of tinderbox conditions inside another crowded, rundown residential building.

“I recommend that we consider shutting this building down immediately due to the danger to life safety,” one fire captain said of the West Oakland halfway house in January, the month after the Ghost Ship fire. The following month, a Fire Department lieutenant put it even more bluntly: “This building is dangerous!”

And yet that building burned, too, last week, killing four residents, leaving scores homeless, and laying bare another inexcusable failure of city government.

Beyond the unheeded alarms sounded by firefighters, The Chronicle reported that the city neglected to conduct required annual inspections of the property and has been loath to “red-tag” buildings as uninhabitable. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf insisted in a recent interview that the city will do so if need be, saying, “We will not turn a blind eye to immediate life-safety threats. We absolutely will red-tag buildings.” Since the Ghost Ship fire, however, Oakland has red-tagged only four buildings — one a suspected illegal gambling den raided by authorities, the other three heavily damaged by fire or fallen tree limbs.

Last week, Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth unveiled a welcome if belated plan to double and eventually triple fire inspection staff while speeding up the search for a new fire chief. The current chief, Teresa Deloach Reed, has taken several weeks of leave since the warehouse fire and filed to retire in March, shortly after she became eligible for a city pension.

Even an army of new inspectors will accomplish little without engaged Fire Department and city leaders who are prepared to respond unflinchingly to what they find. Oakland officials have persisted in allowing people to live in perilous conditions even after the Ghost Ship exposed the deadly folly of that strategy.