OAKLAND, Calif. _ Authorities arrested Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena and warehouse tenant Max Harris on Monday and both have been charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in conjunction with the deadly Dec. 2 Ghost Ship fire that killed three dozen people.
Prosecutors announced the arrests a little more than six months after the inferno and said the investigation is over and no one else, including warehouse landlord Chor Ng, will face criminal charges, upsetting friends and families of victims who blamed Ng for owning a building many called a "death trap."
In court documents, an Alameda County district attorney investigator said Almena held the lease for the warehouse and illegally lived inside, encouraging his subtenants to create living spaces with "nonconventional building materials," such as wooden sculptures, pianos and furniture.
"Almena substantially increased the risk to those living, working or visiting the building by storing enormous amounts of flammable material inside the warehouse," Alameda County DA investigator Cristina Harbison wrote in court documents. "Residents reported that if they put anything in their individual living spaces that did not conform to Almena's idea as to how the warehouse should look, he would order it to be removed."
The ramshackle interior "created an extremely dangerous fire load," Harbison wrote.
Almena, 47, also advertised the space for three years as a music venue and social gathering place without permits, Harbison wrote. Once he began using the warehouse to host parties he was obligated to install proper fire-prevention systems. Witnesses also told investigators he was repeatedly warned about the dangers, but failed to act, Harbison wrote.
The investigator also said the fire started in the northwest corner of the first floor of the warehouse, but because there was so much damage the "exact cause is undetermined."
Almena was arrested in Lake County, while Harris, also known as Max Ohr, was arrested in Los Angeles County on Monday morning without incident, DA spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said at an afternoon news conference in Oakland. The FBI assisted in the arrests.
Almena was booked into Lake County jail shortly before 1 p.m. Monday and was being held on $1 million bail. The jail website listed his home address as Upperlake and he listed his profession as "set designer/stage build." If convicted on all 36 charges, Almena and Harris each face up to 39 years in prison, Drenick said.
Almena and Harris are also defendants in civil lawsuits filed on behalf of the fire victims.
DA Nancy O'Malley told reporters Almena and Harris "knowingly created a fire trap."
Court documents also revealed 27-year-old Harris planned the party Dec. 2 and in his preparation he blocked off one of two exits from the second floor which "effectively reduced the upstairs guests to a single point of escape" down the makeshift front staircase made of wood pallets. Harbison said Harris was Almena's "creative director," collecting rent, mediating disputes among tenants and acting as an intermediary between Almena and the building owners.
The pair also altered the interior of the warehouse by building a bathroom, cutting a doorway into a wall, cutting a hole in the roof and opening a previously sealed window in an adjacent building wall, according to the probable cause statement.
"Their reckless actions were the proximate cause of the death of the 36 individuals trapped inside the warehouse when the fire started," Harbison wrote.
Almena's criminal defense attorney did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.
Thirty-six people, all but one of them attending a dance party in the upstairs of the warehouse, died in the blaze. They were unable to get down a makeshift staircase built of wooden pallets, apparently unaware of another "secret" stairwell from the second floor, and were overcome by smoke trying to find a way out of the burning building.
One texted her mother, "I am going to die." The bodies of couple Michela Gregory and Alex Vega were said to be found in each other's arms.
For family and friends of the fire victims, the arrests bring little comfort.
"I just wish that it wasn't happening at all," said 60-year-old Enid Dias, a relative of fire victim 32-year-old musician Brandon Chase Wittenaueron. "It doesn't give any relief to me. I just wish it never happened.
"I kind of think it's gotten harder, because we're going through a first everything without him," she said. "Our first Memorial weekend, our first Easter, our first Mother's Day. How do you say happy Mother's Day? You can't, because it's not happy."
Eric Bateman, who performed in the band Easystreet with both Chelsea Faith and Travis Hough _ who also died in the fire _ said he has "very complicated feelings" about the charges.
"How can you go after the people who lived there," he said, "who in their hearts and minds had a space for performances and the community, and not go after the landlord for not upgrading the electrical system or turning a blind eye to what existed there?"
Both O'Malley and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, however, said Almena and Harris conspired to cover the fact that people were living in the warehouse from authorities and city officials. In one police officer body camera obtained by this news agency, Almena is seen telling an officer in 2014 that no one lives at the warehouse.
"The reckless and deceptive actions of Derick Almena and Max Harris claimed 36 innocent lives," Schaaf said. "For years, they worked hard to escape legal scrutiny and deceive city officials. Because of their callous disregard for human life, they deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
Almena found himself the subject of worldwide scorn when he posted on social media that "everything I worked so hard for is gone" and that his family was safe without mentioning the 36 deaths. He later said he didn't know people had died.
A father of three, Almena was the "master tenant" of the collective, helping decide who lived and worked there while collecting rent that was passed on to Chor Ng. Tenants described Ng as an absentee landlord, whose son Kai and daughter Eva took care of managing the warehouse. Records show in nearby properties Ng had also been cited for allowing illegal housing inside buildings not zoned residential.
Sources did not mention the Ngs when discussing charges.
Harris, in multiple interviews with the Bay Area News Group prior to his arrest, said he worked as the second-in-command at the Ghost Ship and sometimes collected rent when Almena was away. Harris was the doorman the night of the deadly fire and considered himself the "creative director" or "camp counselor" at the warehouse.
Harris ran a tattoo shop inside the Ghost Ship.
"I greeted almost every single person who walked through that door," Harris said in December, referring to the night of the deadly fire. "And I'm usually the one who says goodbye to them at the end of the night as well."
The Ghost Ship, at 1315 31st Ave., was zoned and permitted only as a warehouse, but was filled with live-and-work spaces for artists. Electricity was provided from a wire running through a hole in the wall from an auto body shop next door. People described extension cords running willy-nilly throughout the building, which was a warren of wooden structures, dozens of pianos, house trailers and RVs. People who had been inside called it a death trap and a tinderbox.
City documents _ most released in February after the Bay Area News Group threatened to sue _ show police officers, firefighters, and code enforcement and building inspectors had dozens of interactions with the collective and the people who lived there, yet none took any action that could have led to its closure.
One police officer responding to a noise complaint at the warehouse shut down what he reported was an "illegal rave" where the caller said drugs and alcohol were being sold, but didn't issue a citation for an illegal gathering under the city's cabaret law. Another officer noted in his report that the space was an illegal dwelling, but took no action to elevate his concerns to the appropriate city department.
The Bay Area News Group learned that firefighters attended a party and entered the warehouse on multiple occasions in 2014, yet there's no documentation that they warned inspectors of the dangerous conditions inside.
Emails and correspondence between tenants and the Ngs showed early knowledge of the haphazard electrical system and sources told the Bay Area News Group that the fire was sparked by an overburdened electrical system.
Just two months before the deadly December blaze that took 36 lives, Harris emailed property managers Kai and Eva Ng about the increasing number of blackouts due to the "overexertion" on the electrical system and warned the Ngs of the "potential of devastating consequences should mishandling or lack of upkeep occur."
Harris said they blew off his concerns. "Kai Ng totally sidestepped my expression of needing stability," he said in a phone interview. "I said it was terminal and was getting worse, and he just asked for more money."
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