Leader Of Oakland Artist Collective Sparks Outrage For Focusing On Himself After Deadly Fire

Derick Ion's Facebook post didn't mention that many people had died.
OaklandFireLive

The man regarded as the leader of a ragtag artist collective in Oakland, California, is facing criticism over a Facebook post he wrote in response to a deadly fire at the group’s homebase.

Derick Ion is the head of the Oakland Ghost Ship artists’ warehouse, where the fire broke out just before midnight Friday during a rave. At least 36 people are confirmed dead, and many more are still missing.

Shortly after the fire, Ion posted a Facebook message saying: “Confirmed. Everything I worked so hard for is gone. Blessed that my children and [wife] Micah were at a hotel safe and sound ... it’s as if I have awoken from a dream filled with opulence and hope ... to be standing now in poverty of self worth.”

The post has since been deleted.

People slammed Ion in hundreds of replies, astounded that he hadn’t mentioned the people who had died. Many also implied that he should bear some responsibility for the tragedy because of his role in the collective.

“I’m devastated,” Michael Allison, who identified himself as Ion’s father-in-law, told The Huffington Post over the phone. “Those poor people. They had no idea how unsafe that building was.”

He said Ion ran rave parties to “get as much money as he could” and called the warehouse space “a fire trap.”

Neither Ion nor his wife replied to Facebook messages or phone calls requesting comment.

The Ghost Ship group is also known as the Satya Yuga Collective. Affiliated artists and musicians describe themselves on Facebook as “an unprecedented fusion of earth home bomb bunker helter skelter spelunker shelters.”

The cause of the fire isn’t yet known. However, officials say artists were living illegally in the building in the Fruitvale section of Oakland, and that no one affiliated with the building had the proper safety permits to inhabit rooms or to use the warehouse as a party venue. One resident told CNN that at least 20 people were living there.

City inspectors had visited the building on Nov. 17 to launch an investigation after people complained that trash had been piling up at the warehouse, CNN reports. Officials have identified several fire safety issues with the building, including evidence that it didn’t have sprinklers and only had two exits available.

Chor N. Ng owns the building through a trust, according to property records reviewed by the East Bay Express.

Ng’s daughter told the Los Angeles Times that the building was leased as studio space to an artist collective. She also told the Times that no one lived in the warehouse, but that the lease holder had told her people sometimes worked there overnight.

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