The leader of an artist collective who managed a cluttered Oakland warehouse where at least 36 people died in a massive fire apologized to victims’ families Tuesday, but said he’d rather let the parents of those killed “tear at my flesh” than answer questions about the tragedy.

The leaseholder on the warehouse, Derick Ion Almena, 47, is accused by people who lived there of ignoring obvious danger while running the slapdash art and residential operation inside the 4,000-square-foot building at 31st Avenue and International Boulevard that was known as the Ghost Ship.

But in an interview Tuesday morning on NBC’s “Today” show, Almena repeatedly deflected questions on whether he should be held accountable for the deadliest structure fire in California in more than a century.

“Am I the man who should be held accountable?” Alemena said in an interview with “Today” show hosts Matt Lauer and Tamron Hall. “What am I going to say to that? Should I be held accountable? I can barely stand here right now.”

Before the fire broke out at the facility during a Friday night electronic music show, it had been known to city zoning, fire, and police officials as a source of complaints about illegal residential uses, all-night dance parties and general blight.

Almena only wanted to say he was sorry, and refused to respond to questions about fire safety.

“I’d rather get on the floor and be trampled by the parents. I’d rather let them tear at my flesh than answer these ridiculous questions,” he said, as he was interviewed near the the scene of the fire wearing a fedora and plaid jacket. “I’m so sorry. I’m incredibly sorry. What do you want me to say?”

He added, “I got a building that was to city standards, supposedly,” before trailing off on a tangent without finishing his thought.

The building was zoned as a warehouse, not for residential uses, although Almena admitted living there with his wife, Micah Allison, and their three children, who were staying at a hotel during the Friday event.

“Did I know there was going to be a fire? Did I remove my children from the space and get a hotel because I wanted to avoid this, because I wanted to cast blame on other people? No. Because I wanted to get a good night’s sleep with my children,” he said Tuesday.

Darin Ranelletti, interim director of the city Planning and Building Department, said the warehouse had been under investigation before the fire to determine whether it was being illegally used for housing.

The building, assessed at $86,000, is owned by Chor Ng, who purchased the property in 2007. Ng’s daughter, Eva Ng, told media outlets that the building was an artist collective and that “nobody lived there.”

Almena, however, has openly said he lived at the warehouse with his family.

“I laid my body down there every night … We put our children to bed there every night. We made music, we created art. We opened our home, what became our home,” he said Tuesday. “It didn’t start off as our home. It started off as an initial dream, an idea that we would have a facility and a venue that would host everything from at-risk youth to the gay community to artists that couldn’t perform anywhere to performance art and alternative arts.”

He continued, “And eventually when you can’t pay your rent because your dream is bigger than your pocketbook, when the need for housing, when the need for people to be able to sit down and be warm and make food and take a shower and take a bath and go to bed. … We created something together.”

The most recent complaint of illegal residential occupancy and blight was on Nov. 13, Ranelletti, said. Inspectors confirmed that there was garbage in the outside area on the property but were not able to gain entry to the building to confirm that people were living there. An inspector went to the property Nov. 17 to investigate rogue interior construction but was not able to gain entry.

Witnesses described the interior of the building as having an eclectic mix of tapestries, instruments and an ornately carved ceiling. A makeshift staircase fashioned in part out of wooden pallets provided a tenuous connection between the ground floor and a second story.

Parents had reportedly tipped off the Fire Department about the lack of sprinklers, signs and exits, according to Danielle Boudreaux, who lived near the warehouse and knew the Almena family for eight years.

While “multiple people warned Derick that it was a death trap. He would laugh it off,” she said.

Almena dodged questions about whether he had ever profited from the warehouse at the expense of public safety.

“This is not profit — this is loss. This is a mass grave. I’m only here to say one thing, that I am incredibly sorry and that everything 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. I’m 47 years old - I’m the father of this space.”

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno