The teen event that took place on the fifth floor of a building on Mason Street on Sunday evening, outside of which a shootout claimed the life of German tourist Mechthild Schroer, did not have a proper fire permit and basically should never have happened. Sadly, all the Fire Dept. can do is give a warning to the building owners, not even a citation, and it doesn't even come with a fine.

At least 200 teenagers attended this party, billed as an end-of-summer event and promoted by LaBriette Collins, a private promoter (please see their teen-speak post-mortem about the night's events via Facebook). It was a sub-let situation, in which the building owner, the Native Sons of the Golden West, leased space to the San Francisco Comedy College and Clubhouse, who in turn rented the fifth floor space out to Collins. Collins claims she had proper security for the event, and in fact the fracas outside was due to the fact that about 200 more teenagers weren't being let in to the already crowded party. The shootout broke out between two rival groups.

A permit never would have been issued for such an event because the fifth floor space only has one exit, down a single stairway. [Chron]