The massive Oakland, California, warehouse fire that might have claimed as many as 40 people broke out during a concert staged by the Los Angeles-based electronic music label 100% Silk, the dance-music company depicted in the 2013 documentary Silk: The Film.
Nine people have been confirmed dead in the blaze, but by late Saturday morning MSNBC and CNN were reporting that Oakland-area law enforcement feared the death toll could rise to 40.
The fire began before midnight Friday, with a reported 55 firefighters battling the flames more than four hours before containing the blaze.
The concert, described in some reports as a holiday party for the 100% Silk label, was scheduled to include performances by bands Golden Donna, Cherushii and Nackt as part of the label’s West Coast tour. The label’s Facebook page says the company “makes 12 inch records and cassettes of diamond-life dance, bliss-disco, basement luxury grooves by friends and lovers from all over the world.”
Golden Donna’s Facebook page is now being used as an active clearinghouse for updated news on survivors and a list of missing persons. By mid-day Saturday, about 25 people were missing.
The warehouse is an artists’ collective, a mix of both work studios, performance space and possibly residences.
100% Silk
The 2013 documentary Silk: The Film, directed by Amanda Kramer and Benjamin Shearn and available for digital rental or purchase through VHX and Amazon Instant Video, was shot over two years and focuses on the 2012 tour of four 100% Silk bands as they play the U.K., Europe and Russia.
As described on the 100% Silk website, Silk “chronicles the performances, environments, and scenes they passed through: congested underground Parisian clubs, motorcycle showrooms in Bristol, abandoned industrial lots in Moscow, afterhours Berlin compounds, re-purposed World War II gun towers in Hamburg, plus large international festivals” in Copenhagen and Barcelona.
“The film is punctuated by staged dance sequences conceived, choreographed, and performed by Mecca Vazie Andrews and the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company,” according to the site, which adds that Silk premiered in 2013 at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen and subsequently screened at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, as well as la Gaîte Lyrique in Paris. “Silk was an official selection at the 2014 Amsterdam Dance Event, Melbourne International Film Festival, and Planete + Doc Film Festival in Poland.”
Deadline will update this post as the story develops.
