Ghost Ship Attorneys Deflect Blame

The attorneys for the master tenant of Oakland's Ghost Ship warehouse are seeking to deflect blame for the fire there that killed 36 people by lashing out at local officials.

In a statement released Monday, December 19, Jeffrey Krasnoff, Kyndra Miller, and Tony Serra said, "Our investigation shows that Derick Almena committed no conduct amounting to criminal negligence. He should not be made a scapegoat."

No charges have been filed related to the fire, which killed at least three transgender people.

The attorneys stated that Alameda County law enforcement officials, including the district attorney's office "have a conflict in interest" in investigating the fire.

"Undoubtedly, there will be a civil case by decedents' representatives who will sue for millions upon millions of dollars," the legal trio said, and the sheriff's office, fire department, building inspectors, and others could potentially be defendants.

"All of them have repeatedly visited the premises without doing anything. The local fire department has even had a musical event there themselves," the statement says. "Civil lawyers look for 'deep pocket' defendants in such a case. ... Here, the only 'deep pockets' are those of Alameda County and the property owners."

Almena's attorneys fear that the county could bring "improper charges" against him and others "in order to divert attention away from their own irresponsible agencies."

They said that if they need to, they'll defend Almena "vigorously by showing that the real culprits are the above agencies who didn't do their jobs."

Officials didn't seem worried by the attorneys' statement about Almena, who said in a Facebook post just after the fire, "Everything I worked so hard for is gone," without mentioning the lives lost.

Sergeant J.D. Nelson, a sheriff's department spokesman, said, "Other than recovering 36 bodies" from the warehouse at 1315 31st Avenue, the sole contact his agency had with the property "was the time we arrested Mr. Almena for being in a stolen trailer" at the front of the site. Nelson didn't know when the arrest had been.

In an email, DA's spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said that her office "is in the midst of a thorough, professional, and careful investigation" related to the December 2 fire, "and it would not be proper for us to comment further at this point in time."

According to media reports, officials have determined arson wasn't the cause of the three-alarm fire and instead suspect that the blaze was the result of an overloaded electrical system. The Bay Area Reporter 's calls to the Oakland office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Alameda County Fire Department weren't returned Tuesday.

Several people had been living in the Fruitvale district building, which wasn't zoned for residential use, and an electronic music concert had just started there when the fire broke out.

After the B.A.R. tried to contact interim Planning and Building Director Darin Ranelletti Tuesday, city spokeswoman Karen Boyd said in an email, "Investigations into the tragic fire on 31st Avenue are ongoing. It is premature to draw any conclusions about responsibility for this deadly tragedy until those investigations are completed."

Many have raised questions about the safety of the building, which was leased by Almena and reportedly was crammed with pianos, rugs, artwork, and other objects, and had no sprinklers, and limited exits. It doesn't appear city agencies had done much to address the hazards.

"The last permitted use of the building was as a warehouse," officials recently said in a news release. On November 13, the city "received complaints of blight and unpermitted interior construction at the building."

On November 17, officials stated, "a city building inspector visited the property and verified the blight complaint, but could not gain access to the building to confirm the other complaint regarding unpermitted construction. This is an ongoing investigation."

San Francisco inspections

Inspectors in San Francisco don't appear to be any more proactive than those in Oakland when it comes to examining warehouses and other industrial spaces.

San Francisco Department of Building Inspection data list 218 properties that are categorized as "warehouse industrial," that aren't regularly inspected.

"I think the only time DBI inspects those is when we get a complaint," said Bill Strawn, a spokesman for the agency. "We couldn't get to them" without being alerted that there's a possible life safety concern.

The department, which already does about 150,000 inspections a year, has approximately 129 inspectors. About half of those get involved in code enforcement.

DBI is currently looking at eight complaints related to the industrial warehouses. The complaints are based on allegations that warehouses are being converted for residential use or being used as entertainment space without a permit.

When there is a complaint, an inspector will go try to talk to someone at the building. If they can't get access, they'll leave a door hanger with a request to schedule an inspection. After three days, if they haven't heard anything, they'll go a second time. If that's still unsuccessful, the building's owner will be prohibited from getting any new permit for the site until they respond to the initial inspection request.

When that doesn't work, the property owner will be instructed to come for a director's hearing. If the owner doesn't show up, an order of abatement will be issued, so they won't be able to do things like sell the property or get a bank loan. Those steps result in issues being corrected 95 percent of the time, Strawn said. In the rest of the cases, they may be referred to the city attorney's office for litigation.

Many have expressed concerns about artists being evicted from warehouses that don't have permits, but Strawn said, in San Francisco, the rent board would still have oversight.

"Even if you're living in an illegal space, you still have certain rights," he said. An owner who decides he doesn't want the tenants anymore, "he has to go through the rent board and the formal eviction process."