Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye, 31, of Oakland, had set up a nail art booth on the second floor of the Ghost Ship warehouse the night of the fire.
When news broke of the blaze that consumed the building, her best friend, Oakland resident Ronnie Casey, stayed up all night hoping she would let him know she was safe.
“When I first heard about the fire, I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation and I was a lot more hopeful,” he said. “As the night turned into morning, I came to realize how serious it was.”
When she didn’t turn up at Highland Hospital and was still missing as the morning progressed into day, Casey said he began to prepare himself for the worst.
On Monday night, his worst fears were confirmed. Tanouye’s name appeared on a list of 10 new victims confirmed dead by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau.
Casey described Tanouye as vibrant, fashionable and beautiful woman.
“She was a light,” he said. “To know her was to love her.”
Tanouye, who used the handle Invisible Pony on social media, was a music manager at Shazam, which makes music identification apps for computers and smart phones. The company tweeted about her death Monday: “We love you and will never forget you Kiyomi.”
The Shazam family is mourning the loss of our amazing Kiyomi Tanouye in the #OaklandFire. We love you and will never forget you Kiyomi. pic.twitter.com/eTeC12ld0i
— Shazam (@Shazam) December 5, 2016
Tanouye also had worked at Issues, a trendy shop in Oakland’s Piedmont neighborhood that sells magazines and books, and the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, according to her Facebook profile. An employee who answered the phone at Issues on Monday confirmed she worked there, but declined to comment.
Tanouye also ran the Mission Creek Oakland Music and Arts festival for several years.
“I strive to support local musicians in their creative endeavors,” she wrote on her LinkedIn profile.
In a 2012 article about the rapidly expanding festival, the East Bay Express described Tanouye as stylish, with pink-streaked hair, green-rimmed glasses, hot-pink lipstick and a flower tattoo on her arm. The article credits her with expanding the San Francisco-based festival across the Bay, helping to cement Oakland as an arts destination.
Stories about other Ghost Ship live-work warehouse fire victims are here. For ongoing coverage of the tragedy go to this page, which has the latest stories followed by earlier coverage.
