2 charged in warehouse fire that killed 36 in Oakland

Promoter, doorman arrested after fire during concert.

OAKLAND, CALIF. — Two people have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deadly Ghost Ship fire that claimed 36 lives inside an Oakland warehouse last year, officials said Monday.

Derick Ion Almena, 47, the concert promoter who converted the warehouse into an artists residence and underground concert venue, was arrested Monday morning in Lake County, according to Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley.

The second person arrested was identified as Max Harris, who was arrested in Los Angeles County, O’Malley said at a news conference. He had been living at the warehouse since 2014 and was the location’s creative director. Harris has previously said he reported electrical problems to the building’s owners and was the doorman on the night of the deadly fire.

Almena and Harris “knowingly created a fire trap, with inadequate means of escape. They then filled that area with human beings,” O’Malley said Monday.

Investigators conducted 75 interviews, executed 12 search warrants, reviewed 6,000 documents or pages of reports and cataloged 300 pieces of evidence during the monthslong investigation, she said.

“We continued to mourn the loss of the 36 young and vibrant men and women, 36 members of our community who should be with us today,” O’Malley said.

The warehouse did not have any fire suppression equipment and was stacked “floor-to-ceiling” with flammable materials, according to O’Malley, who said the defendants had created an “impossible labyrinth” that many of the dead likely could not navigate as they tried to escape the flames that night.

Assistant District Attorney Teresa Drenick would not say if anyone else, including building owner Chor N. Ng, would face charges in connection with the fatal fire.

“As of today the charges that we’ve filed are the charges that stand,” she said.

Drenick also said the cause of the fire would likely remain undetermined, as the furious blaze swallowed up most of the evidence arson investigators would need to determine what started the fire.

The fire at the warehouse known as the Ghost Ship broke out during a Dec. 2 concert, trapping scores of attendees inside. All of the victims died of smoke inhalation, according to coroner’s reports. They ranged in age from 17 to 61.

The deadly inferno has opened the city up to rampant criticism, as public records revealed police and fire officials had been called to the building several times amid mounting evidence it had been converted into an illegal residence.

Oakland officials have repeatedly denied that fire and building officials were aware of the danger within the heavily cluttered 10,000-square-foot warehouse. The fire chief has insisted that the department never inspected the location or responded to a dispatch call there in more than a decade, and that city officials believed it was used as a warehouse, not as a concert and living space.

A city building inspector who visited the address just prior to the fire was unable to gain access to the warehouse, officials say.

But public records released by the city in February show the building had been subject to at least 10 code enforcement complaints. City officials also visited the warehouse numerous times in the years before the deadly blaze.

The warehouse was one of several properties owned by Ng. Her daughter, Eva Ng, 36, has said the building was leased as a studio space for the art collective and was not used as residences.

Almena, the last lessee on the building, had advertised the building on Craigslist as a “hybrid museum, sunken pirate ship, shingled funhouse, and guerrilla gallery.” He lived in the Ghost Ship with his girlfriend, Micah Allison, and their three children. They were not present the night it burned.

In a disjointed interview on NBC’s “Today” show conducted just days after the fire, Almena offered an apology, but bristled when asked if he should be held accountable for the deadly blaze.

“I’m only here to say one thing: I’m incredibly sorry and that everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together,” he said. “People didn’t walk through those doors because it was a horrible place. People didn’t seek us out to perform and express themselves because it was a horrible place.”

Earlier this year, Almena’s legal team released a 10-page report claiming the fire actually started in an adjacent building.

People who had lived in the Ghost Ship building or attended events there described a maze-like fire trap filled with wooden pallets, propane tanks and gas-powered generators that could have either served as tinder or exploded during a fire.