‘Like a horror movie’: woman told Ghost Ship guests to stay in burning warehouse

The Ghost Ship warehouse, site of a fire that killed at least 30 people, is pictured on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. The Ghost Ship warehouse, site of a fire that killed at least 30 people, is pictured on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. Photo: Noah Berger / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Noah Berger / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close ‘Like a horror movie’: woman told Ghost Ship guests to stay in burning warehouse 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

An unidentified woman sitting at the foot of the rickety staircase of the Ghost Ship warehouse instructed party guests to stay upstairs as fire consumed the building, a former resident of the artist collective testified Tuesday.

“This is the will of the spirits of the forest,” she chanted, according to Michael Russell, 28, who lived in the Oakland warehouse for 10 months before it burned a year ago, killing 36 people. Many of those who died were trapped by thick smoke on the second floor of the building, according to the fire investigation completed in March.

The woman was sitting in a wicker chair just outside Russell’s Airstream trailer, which was parked inside the ground level of the warehouse, not far from the building’s entrance, Russell said during a preliminary hearing in Alameda County Superior Court. She was screaming that everyone should remain upstairs, where they would be safe, he said.

“It was honestly like a horror movie,” Russell said. “She was saying, ‘There’s a fire! Don’t come down here!’”

Russell said he didn’t recognize the woman, whose face was partially obscured by smoke, but he remembered she wore a red beanie and green dress.

Outside court, Russell told The Chronicle he wasn’t sure whether the mystery woman survived the inferno. He didn’t see her outside after he escaped.

The startling revelation — Russell said he hadn’t shared the information with anyone other than investigators — followed other new disclosures made Tuesday from the witness stand during the preliminary hearing against defendants Derick Almena, 47, and Max Harris, 27, each facing 36 counts of manslaughter.

Almena was the primary lease holder and founder of the artist collective, and Harris was considered the creative director. The warehouse had no permits to be used for an event space or residential use.

Russell testified that a fight apparently broke out around the time and place the fire sparked. And a pathway through the middle of the first floor was blocked off — before the party began — by a piano bench and tied-shut saloon-style doors. Russell said he didn’t know who put the obstruction in place, but it was common practice during parties to keep out “riffraff.”

Russell, a graphic designer and computer technician, lived in a small trailer at the base of the warehouse’s front staircase, which he said had uneven spacing between steps, made of reclaimed wood.

The night of Dec. 2, 2016, Russell testified, he invited a date to the electronic music party at the warehouse. When she arrived, he gave her a tour of the collective, first going up the makeshift front staircase by his trailer, through the dance area of the second floor, then back down a different staircase at the rear of the warehouse.

They made their way through the hallway that cut through the ground floor and had to duck under the saloon doors, which were roped closed, and maneuvered around an adjacent piano bench.

As the pair headed toward his trailer to watch a movie, Russell said, he heard what sounded like a scuffle breaking out toward the back of the warehouse. The fire started in that vicinity — the northwest area of the first floor — according to the incident’s cause-and-origin report.

“Someone’s going to handle this,” Russell said he remembered thinking. But as he and his date made their way through the hallway, the sounds from the fight grew “more and more intense.”

“It sounded vicious,” he added. “It almost sounded like a straight-up fist fight.”

Back in his trailer, Russell said he heard a voice he didn’t recognize yell, “Fire!” He thought at first it might have been a prank.

He grabbed a few belongings, then peeked back outside his trailer, where a living room area with leather couches and wicker chairs was located.

The woman sitting in one kept saying, “This is the will of the spirits of the forest,” Russell said. But it wasn’t clear whether her chanting or directions to remain upstairs had an effect on people trying to escape the smoke. Russell said he did not remember seeing anyone trying to descend the staircase during the bizarre encounter, but acknowleged he couldn’t see the top portion.

Some survivors previously told The Chronicle that several party guests had tried to go down the narrow staircase but climbed back up when they felt the heat and smoke emanating from the ground floor.

As Russell and his date ran to the entrance, Russell said he heard Harris yelling, “This is the exit! This is the exit!” Harris had been working as a bouncer and doorman through the event. Almena was in a hotel with his family.

Russell said Almena asked him to sign a “quasi-legal” contract a few months after moving in, promising to “be awesome, be clean and make art.”

Tyler Smith, an attorney representing Harris, said Russell’s testimony was “huge” for his client’s defense. The woman who instructed guests to remain upstairs could act as an “intervening cause” of negligence, he said.

“What was stopping them from coming down? The government is trying to point to the rickety stairs,” Smith said outside court. But the woman’s words may have dissuaded partygoers from descending and thus provide a different explanation, he said.

At the end of the preliminary hearing this week or next, Judge Jeffrey Horner will decide whether the prosecution has enough evidence against Almena and Harris to go to trial.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov