Charred items from fire to be moved to different site
Lawyer for landlord says Alameda Point or Stockton likely location
OAKLAND — A lawyer for Ghost Ship landlord Chor Ng said he has found a place to store piles of charred items taken from the deadly warehouse fire that had been dumped near the Oakland shoreline, debris a judge earlier ordered preserved as potential evidence in wrongful death lawsuits.
Attorney Stephen Dreher at a court hearing Thursday told Judge Brad Seligman that a site in Alameda Point or in Stockton will likely be used, after a deal to rent a Vallejo warehouse fell through. As landlord, Ng is responsible for storing and securing the debris that had for weeks been unprotected and exposed to the elements.
The charred pieces of the building and tenants’ belongings were hauled away by city workers and contractors so the coroner could remove the bodies of the 36 victims of the Dec. 2 fire. The workers moved the debris to a city-owned open lot behind a soccer field off Oakport Street and to an unused hangar at Oakland International Airport.
Former Ghost Ship residents sifted through the belongings and heavy December rains soaked the items left outside, raising questions about whether that compromised possible evidence.
Security guards hired by Ng now watch the site, as well as the Ghost Ship warehouse.
A team of forensic engineering experts surveyed the two debris piles for Dreher and wrote on March 21, “it is important to stress that the condition of these materials is not consistent with usual standards of forensic fire evidence.”
“The materials were removed by public entity investigators. Following examination of the materials by those personnel, the materials in question appear to have accumulated in piles and trucked to the current storage sites without further documentation,” wrote senior fire science consultant Joseph B. Zicherman and fire investigation consultant Stan Huncilman of Berkeley Engineering and Research Inc.
Questions over the handling and storing of the debris became an early issue in civil wrongful death suits filed by families of the victims. The number of lawsuits has grown to 12, with the most recent filed Wednesday by the family of Edmond Lapine.
In all, suits have been filed for 10 victims: Jennifer Morris, Matthew Bohlka, Griffin Madden, Peter Wadsworth, Alex Ghassan, Vanessa Plotkin, Hanna Ruax, Lapine, Feral Pines and Samuel Maxwell. Two suits each have been filed for victims Bohlka and Ghassan, bringing the total number to 12.
The sole Ghost Ship survivor plaintiff, Maxwell, 32, escaped the flames but was severely injured from inhaling the thick smoke.
“Maxwell is believed to be the last individual to make it out of the Ghost Ship warehouse alive,” according to the lawsuit filed March 15. “Mr. Maxwell crawled on his hands and knees through smoke and flames barely managing to save his own life.”
During the escape, Maxwell suffered minor burns but severe smoke inhalation; respiratory failure; anoxic brain injury; acute hypoxic/toxic encephalopathy; and heart, liver and kidney injuries.
He was hospitalized for two months after the fire and placed into a coma, and it was determined he had a severe “life-altering” brain injury making speaking, walking, standing or working difficult or impossible indefinitely, according to the lawsuit.