Ghost Ship trial: Fire code inspector testifies on who’s responsible for building changes

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 / 8 Caption Close Ghost Ship trial: Fire code inspector testifies on who’s responsible for building changes 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

A veteran fire code inspector on Wednesday testified that anyone who changes a facility’s use is required to keep that building up to fire code.

Sprinklers, exit doors and smoke and fire detectors could mean the difference between life and death inside a burning building, expert witness Cesar Avila told Ghost Ship trial jurors. Heightened standards are required for residential buildings or places of assembly compared to unoccupied storage areas, he said.

After more than an hour of testimony, prosecutor Casey Bates had set the stage for a key question to Avila: If a building is converted from storage to residential or assembly space, who bears responsibility for keeping the building up to code?

“The person making the change,” Avila said.

Prosecutors are expected to use Avila’s statements, along with testimony from other witnesses, to show the defendants — Derick Almena, 49, and Max Harris, 29 — converted the warehouse into a death trap and should share the blame for the Dec. 2, 2016, blaze that killed 36 people at a music show.

Almena, who was the master tenant of the artist collective warehouse, and Harris, its creative director, are each charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Meanwhile, defense attorneys attempted to redirect the blame onto city and county officials, whose job is to understand the fire code and flag buildings for dangerous conditions.

Curtis Briggs, a defense attorney for Harris, made this point Wednesday morning during his cross-examination of Avila.

Briggs asked Avila about building codes, rules and regulations, as well as the purpose of the code. Harris asked if this code was created on decades of acquired knowledge.

“Sometimes we refer to the code as being written in blood and ashes,” Avila said.

Throughout his questioning, Briggs attempted to show that only an expert could understand all the intricacies of the fire code, and it was a professional’s job to explain it to non-experts, like Almena and Harris.

Briggs also attempted to shift blame to the owners of the building, the Ng family, because at least one family member allegedly was present when Almena spoke about making changes to the space.

Defense attorneys have also suggested that a band of arsonists were to blame for the inferno.

Later in the day, prosecutors called to the stand Jennifer Turner, who lived at Ghost Ship for about 45 days in 2014. Turner said she responded to a Craigslist ad for a “psychedelic pirate ship” while she was looking for housing.

Almena and another man gave her a tour of the building, and Almena explained that he wanted a community to construct infrastructure and to use their imaginations, she said. Also, Turner said, “it was to be understood as an artists’ 24-hour space, even though people were living there.”

Turner told Bates she understood the message to mean that no one should tell the landlord or authorities that the space was being used as housing.

The evening of Dec. 2, 2016, a massive blaze tore through the Ghost Ship warehouse, where about 100 people had gathered for an electronic music party. The space was a labyrinth of passageways crammed with flammable materials, firefighters later said. A stack of wooden pallets served as the only unblocked “stairway” to and from the second floor, where the party was being held. There were no fire exits.

Seven victims were later recovered from the second floor, in a section that didn’t collapse or burn but showed extensive smoke damage. The 29 other people were found either in the rubble from a partial collapse of the second floor or on the ground floor. All 36 died of smoke inhalation.

Testimony in the trial is expected to last 12 to 18 weeks.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy