Fire survivor feared he’d die on ‘those stairs’
The fumes seemed to emanate from the base of a pillar on the second floor. While smoke machines wouldn’t have been surprising at an electronic music party at the Ghost Ship warehouse, this variety was “noxious.”
Reactions were almost instantaneous, as people ran from the flames “like spilled milk,” witness Sam Maxwell told the Oakland courtroom Wednesday on the 11th day of testimony in the Ghost Ship fire trial.
In just 20 seconds — maybe 10 — some 80 people had bottlenecked around the second-floor staircase, attempting to flee a blaze that would ultimately claim 36 lives. Maxwell waited for his chance to clear the crowd and bolted down the stairs as the flames seared his face and hands.
“I thought I was going to burn alive on those
stairs,” he said.
Testifying from a wheelchair and behind sunglasses, Maxwell spoke in a gravelly, low voice that was often unintelligible without help from his interpreter. Maxwell, who spent six weeks in a coma after escaping the fire, is one of just three people who made it out from the second floor of the Fruitvale warehouse, prosecutors said.
Derick Almena, 49, and Max Harris, 29, both face 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each person killed in the deadly inferno. Almena and Harris were tenants at the artists collective, and they have been called the leader and second-incommand of the warehouse, respectively. Prosecutors have accused the men of creating a deathtrap that left the victims with “no notice, no time and no exits.”
Before Maxwell took the stand Wednesday, defense attorneys argued that he shouldn’t be allowed to testify, because jurors would be overly sympathetic to his injuries. Jurors were not present in the courtroom at this time.
“The prejudice is overwhelming,” said Tony Serra, Almena’s attorney.
Serra argued that Maxwell’s “hollow” voice alone would trigger emotions from jurors.
“Dare I say it’s ghostlike,” he said, eliciting gasps from spectators in the gallery.
Alameda County Judge Trina Thompson allowed Maxwell to testify, but she said testimony about his injuries should be left to the victim-impact portion of the trial.
Maxwell said he drove alone to Ghost Ship that night, eager to see one of his favorite bands perform.
People were dancing and socializing throughout the evening, but the music got softer around the same time Maxwell first saw smoke, he said. It seemed everyone became aware of the danger at the same moment.
Maxwell thought he was safe after escaping the building and went to a nearby liquor store looking for burn cream. They didn’t have any, so he instead bought water and returned to the warehouse before someone drove him to the hospital.
Maxwell said he had been to the warehouse prior to the night of the fire, and he believed the stairs were unsafe. He noted “those stairs” on numerous occasions throughout his testimony, the words booming and angry.
On cross-examination, Serra asked Maxwell why he returned to the Ghost Ship if he believed it to be unsafe.
“Because I love music,” Maxwell said.
Prosecutors say few safety measures were installed in the 10,000square-foot warehouse, where up to 25 people were living illegally. Defense attorneys have argued that city and county officials should have recognized the fire hazards and taken action when visiting the warehouse in the months and years leading up to the fire.
Defense attorneys also suggested a band of arsonists started the blaze, but a lead investigator into the Ghost Ship fire said on Tuesday that her team found no evidence to support this theory.