Could proactive measures have done anything for the Ghost Ship Fire? What's your opinion? Here's mine..

  There are many predictable emergency's that we are able to pro-actively prevent. If we live in a remote area where we are surrounded by dry brush up to the house, many if not most of us would clear it. If we live on a hill and a pipe sprung a leak eroding the soil on the way down we would most likely shut the water off and fix the leak. In other words if we can expend a little amount of effort right now to eliminate a serious result most of us would perform the task or complete the repair.
  There are many disasters we can not predict to enable us to take precautions to lessen the results. Dam's failing, sinkholes, bridge collapses and many other unpredictable events.

I don't think there is many of these water pipes in the
world, who knows.

  This makes me wonder about some buildings that have burned to the ground and taken many lives with them, tragic. I'm talking about the warehouses being occupied by people taking on the renovations them selves, they are all over the country. All are occupied by good people with good intentions merely trying to survive. Artist, musicians and writers, mostly young and just beginning their lives. They rent a space, then have free access to modify it. It's a good game plan, as long as the buildings are up to code. Some of the people that did not make it out of the ghost ship fire in Oakland California on December 6, 2016 were caught in an upstairs area with no way out, one rickety staircase built by the occupants. It brings up the topics of code enforcement's, inspections by the fire Marshall's and building inspectors, OK that's a given all of that will come up in investigations and inquiry's. That really has to occur, and it is as this is being written.
  I have seen pictures and news films about the Ghost Ship Fire in Oakland, I live about 50 mile NE of that city. The photo's I have seen show stacks of "stuff" everywhere, pallets, a few pianos, tires as well as all kinds of artist supplies. It appeared isle ways with stuff on each side, flammable stuff. As the camera's pan over the destroyed warehouse showing the burned cinders of all the debris I can't help but think of a couple of things:
  1) I didn't see any dumpsters, I don't know where people placed their trash maybe there  were garbage cans somewhere I don't know. There should have been a large dumpster, requested by the occupants and supplied by the owner/landlord. Would it have prevented the fire? No, but it would have conveyed a message, "if you don't need it toss it". Which brings me to the next point.

Pallets burn great, I watched a stack like this burn, it was fast
and very very hot. 

  2) It may be my Navy training, on my ship we had a lot of fires, big fires, small fires some that were deadly. It was very important for each sailor to take responsibility when a spot was seen that was a fire hazard to immediately clean it up. If I was unable to, then make sure I tell someone about it. (One reason to pass it on would have been watch duty). I wonder in the warehouse's if anyone ever looked around and said to themselves "man this place is a fire trap." the next thought should have been "we've got to clean this place up". To me that's basic pro-active disaster prevention, pile all the pallets up outside and get rid of them. The paints, cardboard and paper all in the dumpster, would it have prevented the fire? Most likely not, but it may have, and it may have slowed it down enough for more people to get out. The National Fire Prevention Association's website goes into detail, click here.

USS Forestall fire, 1967, great lose of life. 

I would not think about pointing blame, in a situation like this it's so very tragic and heart breaking there is enough blame to go around, but it has no place. Responsibility, hey that too was everyone, that fire and the ones like it mainly created victims, the deceased, the owners, the landlords and mostly the families of the ones that did not make it out. The courts will sort all of that out, I won't and can't.
  The message I want to send is if you're living in a space like that, stand up look around and ask your self "Would I be safe if this place started on fire?" If the answer is No, get the landlord to supply a dumpster then organize the occupants and make the place safer. Ask about the electrical system, look around for extension cords running everywhere, fire extinguishers should be around, and exit routes. A major problem is when the fire Marshall show's up, performs an inspection and comes up with a repair list, instantly he's the "bad guy", go figure. After a disaster like one of these fires, he's blamed then for not performing "enough" timely inspections, and if they were timely then the accusation is he didn't enforce it strongly enough. They are in a very tough spot.

  Thanks for reading, write a comment I'd like to hear from you.

jimandkate  EmergencyKitsPlus.com