With only 20% of the building searched earlier on Sunday, 24 victims were confirmed killed. Now that number has risen to 30, and the first names of the victims are being revealed.
Cash Askew, Donna Kellogg, Pete Wadsworth, Barrett Clark, Nex Luguolo and Travis Hough are the first named victims of the fire at the "Ghost Ship" artist collective, the Daily Mail reports. Bob Mulè, a friend of Wadsworth and a member of the collective, told NBC earlier today that he had tried to pull Wadsworth to safety as they ran, but had to give up.
"He must have broken his ankle while coming down from his loft and his space and he needed me to pull him out," Mulè said. "I tried my best and there was just stuff in the way some stuff had fallen and it was hectic."
He suffered burns on his arms, hands and clothes while trying to escape.
"That thought of him, in there, it's in my brain," he said.
With 50 to 70 people thought to have been in the building when it went up in flames, officials fear they will confirm more bodies overnight.
"We anticipate that the number of victims… will increase, " Alameda County Sheriff Ray Kelly said Sunday morning, CNN reports.
The fire at the "Ghost Ship," which made its home in an Oakland warehouse, broke out as a party at the popular gathering place was getting started. The fire caused the warehouse's second floor to collapse on to the first floor, firefighters have revealed.
At the Sunday press conference, Oakland Battalion Fire Chief Melinda Drayton described the slow process of moving through the crowded artists' workspace, which visitors have described as "a maze of wood" and firefighters have likened to "a labyrinth."
Firefighters worked overnight to remove debris "literally bucket by bucket," Drayton said, according to NBC News. After 12 hours, they had covered only 20% of the building.
"This will be a long and arduous process," she said. "We want to make sure we are respecting the victims and their families and ensuring our firefighters' safety." Names of the victims will begin to be released later December 4, authorities have said.
The process is expected to continue "for days and days to come," Kelly said.
Max Ohr, creative director of the art collective that used the warehouse, was working the door the night of the party. He told NBC he "saw an orange glow coming from the back of the warehouse" and went to get a fire extinguisher.
"I ran back and got maybe one squirt out of and realized it wasn't going to do anything," he said. "The roof had already caught and the flames were coming towards the door at an alarming rate."
He said it took about 15 seconds to go from realizing there was a fire to seeing the room engulfed.
Other party attendees have commented on how fast the flames took over the building. Seung Lee, a California journalist, told Buzzfeed he dropped by the party with friends, but left to buy alcohol around the corner. He walked in to the party, spent a few minutes inside, then left. By the time he came back, flames were visible and smoke was pouring out of the windows.
According to his phone records, Lee and his friends had entered the party around 11:10. At 11:24, he'd called 911 to report the fire.
"It happened within 15 minutes," he said.
