Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Criminal probe of fire in Oakland launched
Warehouse death toll at 36; search for bodies continues
OAKLAND, Calif. — As criminal investigators begin to examine who is to blame for one of the worst fires in modern California history, Oakland authorities on Monday resumed their grim search for bodies in the ruins of a warehouse blaze after it was halted for hours due to structural weaknesses.
Prosecutors said murder charges could result from their investigation as the death toll rose to 36.
Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern said he didn’t believe there would be additional bodies found.
Officials halted recovery operations Monday just after midnight when a crew that was surveying the destruction from a neighboring rooftop noticed that the front wall was leaning toward the center of the building, said Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Melinda Drayton. Most of the bodies have been recovered in the center of the building.
As of Monday morning, about 70 percent of the building had been searched, officials said.
Firefighters and sheriff ’s officials later re-entered the building after ensuring its safety and resumed their search. They are expecting rain Tuesday, but Drayton said their search efforts would continue to move in a steady and methodical pace.
Authorities believe the fire began in the back of the building, but they still have no idea what caused it. Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said Monday her office has sent a team to search for evidence of a crime in the warehouse, but has not yet determined whether a crime occurred.
“It’s too early to speculate on anything,” O’Malley said. “We just started our investigation, and we owe it to the community and those who perished in this fire, and those who survived the fire to be methodical, to be thorough, and to take the amount of time it takes to be able to look at every piece of potential evidence.”
Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo, who lives a block from the warehouse, said he confronted the property’s manager — Derick Ion Almena — several times about neighbors’ concerns about trash in the street and in front of the warehouse. Gallo said Almena essentially told authorities to “mind their own business” and appeared resistant to addressing complaints and complying with city codes.
Almena and his partner, Micah Allison, ran the building’s arts colony, called the Satya Yuga collective. They were believed to have been away at the time of the blaze.
Asked late Sunday by San Francisco television station KGO about his thoughts on those killed in the fire, Almena said, “They’re my children. They’re my friends, they’re my family, they’re my loves, they’re my future. What else do I have to say?”
The warehouse is owned by Chor N. Ng, her daughter Eva Ng told the Los Angeles Times. She said the warehouse was leased as studio space for an art collective and was not being used as a dwelling.
“We are also trying to figure out what’s going on like everybody else,” the family wrote in a statement to NBC Bay Area.
Among the victims were Travis Hough, 35, a therapist who used music to help kids cope with trauma; Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, a musician, mentor and community advocate; Cash Askew, 22, a musician; Donna Kellogg, 32, who worked at Highwire Coffee Roasters; and Sara Hoda, 30, who taught at a Montessori school. Other victims identified by the city of Oakland were Peter Wadsworth, David Clines, 35, and Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32.
Authorities withheld the name of another victim, a 17-year-old boy, because he was a minor.