OAKLAND — The city of Oakland has ordered the new owner of the halfway house where four people died in a fire last year to cease unpermitted work at the San Pablo Avenue property.

The March 27 “stop work” order — issued exactly one year after the deadly fire — came after attorneys suing the city and the previous owner complained that debris and other materials that could be evidence in a civil case were being hauled outside.

Attorneys for more than 60 fire victims on Wednesday requested a temporary restraining order against the new landlord, William Choi, in another attempt to prohibit work at 2551 San Pablo Ave. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman denied the request because Choi is not a defendant in the case and was not present at a Thursday afternoon hearing.

County records show Choi, CEO of WJS Property, purchased the building from Piedmont resident Keith Kim for $700,000 on Jan. 25. As part of the deal, Mead Avenue Housing Associates, run by Kim, loaned WJS Property $600,000. Kim, the city of Oakland and the nonprofit that operated out of the building are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Last week, a Bay Area News Group reporter witnessed crews sawing wood inside the first floor and a container partially full of debris was parked outside. Filmmaker April Martin, who lives across the street, notified attorneys that she saw workers tearing out the main staircase and on Friday saw a Bobcat “in the entryway to start to prepare to take more debris out.”

According to a copy of the work order, the described violations were “alteration of front exterior wall for Bobcat entry for clean-up.” City officials have said Choi has not applied for any work permits.

“The building is the biggest piece of evidence in the case,” plaintiff attorney Bobby Thompson said recently. “They are basically destroying evidence.”

Attorneys had said Seligman issued an order to preserve evidence at the site, but on Thursday the judge clarified he had not. Seligman, who presides over the Ghost Ship fire civil lawsuit, had ordered the Fruitvale district warehouse and its contents preserved as evidence.

In recent court filings, attorneys for the victims accused Kim of trying to hide his assets to protect himself from a future judgment in the lawsuit. His attorney, William Kronenberg, called the claim “an empty accusation without any support whatsoever.”

“It’s another baseless tactic without any evidence,” he said. “It’s just like claiming Mr. Kim is demolishing the building and removing evidence. Mr. Kim doesn’t even own the building.”

Related Articles Year after Oakland fire, survivors struggle to find housing Kronenberg said Kim sold the building because he had no interest in rebuilding. According to the attorney, pertinent evidence is already stored in a separate facility and investigators with the Oakland fire department and outside fire experts working for both sides of the lawsuit have conducted several inspections since the March 27, 2017, fire. Fire officials determined the cause to be accidental and started by an unattended candle on the second floor.

“The claim that somehow a year later, despite all these hundreds of hours of inspections, that there’s still some evidence left seems unlikely,” Kronenberg said. “It’s a fishing expedition.”