Seven of them were huddled next to a couch on the second floor. Another was just 10 feet from the front door. Eight others were found together wrapped in a rug, apparently having fallen all at once when the floor under them collapsed. They, like all the other victims of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire, died of smoke inhalation, their lungs and airways clogged with soot.
Harrowing details of how the 36 victims of the Dec. 2 fire struggled to live emerged late Monday when the city released a long-awaited 50-page report on the deadliest fire in modern California history.