Oakland Fire Marshal’s Office Has Been Understaffed for Years
The office is shorthanded, has inexperienced staff, and routinely elevates revenues over safety, according to the firefighters’ union.
The city of Oakland employed no fire marshal or assistant fire marshal for three of the past four years—officials who would have led the city agency that had the power to shut down the Ghost Ship warehouse before it erupted in flames, killing at least 36 people on Friday night.
The Oakland Fire Marshal’s Office is beset with problems, according to the Oakland firefighters’ union. It is shorthanded; it has at least one inspector who failed a state license exam; and it routinely elevates revenue-generating initiatives over public safety.
“The fire marshal’s position itself was open for three of the past four years,” said Zac Unger, an official with the Oakland firefighters’ union. During the time that Oakland had no fire marshal, Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed assumed the marshal’s duties, which include inspecting or ordering the inspection of thousands of buildings throughout the city to make sure they’re safe. Last year, the city finally hired a fire marshal: Miguel Trujillo.
According to the firefighters’ union, the marshal’s office under Reed’s command has prioritized perfunctory inspections rather than in-depth ones in order to collect as many fire inspection fees as possible from Oakland businesses.
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