Ghost Ship: Authorities arrest 2 in deadly fire that killed 36

Two proprietors of the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, where 36 people died in a fire in December, were arrested Monday and charged with felony involuntary manslaughter related to the inferno.

Master tenant Derick Almena and the art space’s creative director, Max Harris, “knowingly created a fire trap ... then filled that area with human beings and now face the consequences of their actions,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said Monday in announcing the arrests and charges.

“Paying guests were faced with a nearly impossible labyrinth to get out of the building,” O’Malley said, calling Almena and Harris reckless.

Each defendant faces 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter and up to 39 years in prison, prosecutors said. Almena, 47, was arrested in Lake County, and Harris, 27, who uses the name Max Ohr, was arrested in Los Angeles County.

Derick Almena, the master tenant of the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, Calif., where 36 people died in a fire in December 2016, was arrested Monday, June 5, 2017. The art space’s creative director, Max Harris, was also arrested and the pair were charged with felony involuntary manslaughter. less Derick Almena, the master tenant of the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, Calif., where 36 people died in a fire in December 2016, was arrested Monday, June 5, 2017. The art space’s creative director, Max ... more Photo: Courtesy Alameda County Sheriffs Office Photo: Courtesy Alameda County Sheriffs Office Image 1 of / 95 Caption Close Ghost Ship: Authorities arrest 2 in deadly fire that killed 36 1 / 95 Back to Gallery

Almena appeared in Lake County Superior Court Monday, and his bail was set at $1,080,000. He was later booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Harris was booked into Los Angeles County jail with bail also set at $1,080,000.

Authorities on Monday also revealed that the exact cause of the fire will remain unknown because of severe fire damage to the two-story building at 1301 31st Ave. in the Fruitvale district.

The arrests mark the end of a six-month investigation that began the night of Dec. 2, when a fire erupted at the artist collective during an unpermitted electronic music event that was open to the public. Most of the victims were trapped on the second floor as a wall of smoke and flames engulfed the building’s maze-like escape routes. All of the victims died from smoke inhalation.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf commended O’Malley for filing criminal charges.

“I applaud the charges filed today ... because they send a clear message: You won’t get away with making a profit by cramming people into dangerous spaces or failing to maintain safe living conditions,” Schaaf said.

Attorneys for Almena said they would “vigorously defend” their client.

“We believe that these charges represent no less than a miscarriage of justice,” said Jeffrey Krasnoff, Kyndra Miller and Tony Serra, in a statement. “We are confident that this attempt to make a scapegoat of our client will fail.”

Efforts to reach an attorney for Harris were unsuccessful.

Almena — the eccentric patriarch of the underground artist collective — lived in the warehouse with his wife and children. None of them was home on the night of the fire.

According to the charging documents filed by O’Malley’s office, Almena promoted the upstairs space as a venue for music and social events, with up to 100 people allowed to attend “inside this unsafe and unpermitted warehouse.”

The documents say Harris acknowledged he had allowed the Dec. 2 party to take place and prepared the second floor for the music event, blocking off access to one of the two stairwells, which left only one escape route.

In addition, the documents say that Almena and Harris allowed up to 25 people to live in the building for two years but lied to law enforcement officers investigating the fire, telling them that “no one lived in the warehouse.”

As the leaseholder, Almena was responsible under the California Fire Code for installing fire-suppression systems, smoke alarms, exit signs and sprinklers when he allowed people to live in the building, prosecutors said. However, he failed to take these safety steps, they said.

He also failed to seek a zoning variance from light industrial to live-work, violating city and state codes, the documents allege.

Prosecutors said Almena also encouraged his tenants — who paid $350 to $1,400 in rent — to use unconventional materials to create their living spaces. Those included tapestries, pianos, RV trailers, wooden sculptures and other “ramshackle” and highly flammable materials, also a violation of city and state codes, documents say.

A friend, Aaron Marin, who has known Almena for years and escaped from the Ghost Ship fire by jumping out of a second-floor window, had mixed feelings about the arrest.

“I know for a fact he didn’t intentionally want his place and all his stuff to burn and those people to die,” Marin said. “But it’s a matter of being accountable for the lives.”

Those who know Almena had conflicting views of him, with some describing him as a loving artist and father and others calling him a slumlord.

During the investigation, authorities conducted dozens of witness interviews, pored through 6,000 pages from relevant documents, issued 12 search warrants and examined 300 pieces of evidence.

Investigators and attorneys conducted an “intensive legal analysis” to determine who could be charged in the case, said Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for O’Malley.

During Monday’s news conference, Drenick limited questions to technical issues related to the charges and declined to say whether additional arrests will be made.

Manslaughter charges stemming from fatal non-arson fires are rare.

In 2003, 100 people were killed at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island, when pyrotechnics set off a massive blaze during a show by ’80s metal band Great White. A grand jury indicted two brothers who owned the nightclub, along with the band manager who started the fireworks, on involuntary manslaughter charges.

Great White’s manager, Daniel Biechele, pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to four years in prison. Defendants Michael Derderian and Jeffrey Derderian were sentenced to four years in prison and three years of probation respectively.

News of the criminal charges in the Ghost Ship case brought some relief to friends and families of the victims.

“I was appalled at how many people knew how unsafe this was, and for many years,” said Wendy Dixon-Magree, 61, of Aurora, Ohio. Her nephew, Billy Dixon, was killed in the fire. “You never want to see anybody get sued or charged with a crime, but, yes, maybe it needed to be done. It was a horrible accident, and they knew how dangerous it was.”

In Oakland, David Bernbaum, 37, whose brother Jonathan and several friends died in the fire, said, “I talked to my parents; we all feel pretty similarly. We all have a lot of anger at Derick for all of this.

“That said, we know that this isn’t something that is going to bring anybody back.”

One victim injured in the Ghost Ship blaze remains hospitalized with a serious respiratory condition, O’Malley said.

Several families have filed civil lawsuits against Almena, Harris and the building’s owner, Chor Ng, and other promoters and performers at the event. They have also sued Pacific Gas and Electric Co., saying the utility supplied power to the doomed artist space with “blatant disregard” for the safety of the people in the building.

While there is no official cause of the blaze, investigators had narrowed the origin of the fire to a shared kitchen in the back of the building’s first floor. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had looked into the building’s electrical system, a tangle of extension cords weaving around the warehouse’s rickety rooms.

All of the building’s power came from a single source: a transformer box inside a neighboring auto body shop, attorneys for the victim’s families said in court papers.

The families have also filed separate legal claims — precursors to lawsuits against government entities — against the city of Oakland, Alameda County and the state of California.

In the two years before the Ghost Ship fire, police were repeatedly called to parties at the warehouse. But despite the calls and numerous complaints from neighbors, then-fire chief Teresa Deloach Reed raised brows when she said in the days after the fire that her department had no idea there were people living or having parties at the Ghost Ship.

She retired on May 5 amid criticism over her management of the department and inspection procedures.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jill Tucker contributed to this report.

Evan Sernoffsky, Kimberly Veklerov and Peter Fimrite are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @KVeklerov, @pfimrite

Previous coverage of Ghost Ship blaze

Online: To see all of The Chronicle’s coverage of December’s deadly inferno in Oakland, go to www.sfchronicle.com/oakland-fire/