Two people have been arrested in connection with the deadly Ghost Ship fire that claimed 36 lives inside an Oakland, Calif., warehouse last year, and will be charged with involuntary manslaughter, according to prosecutors and a source familiar with the case.
Derick Ion Almena, 47, the concert promoter who converted the warehouse into an artists residence and underground concert venue, was arrested Monday morning, according to Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Teresa Drenick. Charges have yet to be formally filed, she said.
The second person arrested was identified as Max Harris, Drenick said. 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 discussed power outages, necessary upgrades and electrical bills with them. He was the doorman on the night of the deadly event.
Authorities have not said what charges they will face.
But a source familiar with the investigation said both defendants will be charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The source requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
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 Chor N. 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."
Calls to Almena's attorneys seeking comment Monday were not immediately returned. He is being represented by attorneys J. Tony Serra, Jeffrey Krasnoff and Kyndra Miller. The litigators have previously said the officials investigating the case have a "conflict of interest" because they were likely to face civil suits in connection with the fire. The families of the victims filed a civil suit naming Ng, Almena and PG&E as defendants earlier this year.
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 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.
Shelly Mack, who said she paid $700 to live in a trailer near the building from November 2014 to February 2015, said the building was overcrowded. She shared a bathroom with as many as 20 tenants, depending on the day, and the building often lacked heat or power.
"There was no electricity, and it was freezing in there," she told the Los Angeles Times last year.
In the months following the fatal fire, investigators with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scoured the charred husk of the warehouse. The ATF has determined the cause of the fire and presented it to the Oakland Fire Department earlier this year in a confidential report. The cause of the fire has not been made public.
