Did Police Ignore Warnings That Led To 2016 Oakland Warehouse Fire? Ghost Ship Manager Charged For 36 Deaths

The manager and his second-in-command of an illegally rented warehouse in Oakland, California, which caught fire in 2016 and killed 36 people trapped inside, were arrested Monday and charged by police. Derick Almena and Max Harris face 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Almena was arrested in Lake County while Harris was arrested in Los Angeles on Monday morning, DA spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said during a press conference in Oakland.

While the case has taken a new turn with the arrests, it has emerged a 2016 Reuters report said the city officials “had multiple opportunities to see that residents were illegally living there in hazardous conditions” but failed to take any action. The report also stated the Oakland Police Department had received several complaints about the warehouse and had visited the site at least six times, but failed to flag it as a hazard.

Read: Oakland Warehouse Fire: City Inspectors Hadn't Been Inside Building Where 36 Died In Three Decades

Moreover, a Los Angeles Times report also mentioned “Oakland officials have repeatedly denied that fire and building officials were aware of the danger” although public records released February showed at least 10 complaints registered regarding the warehouse.

Nancy O'Malley, the Alameda County district attorney said Almena had rented out the warehouse to artists to live and work. The attorney also accused Derick Almena of holding profit concerts at the warehouse despite not having a valid license, Boston Globe reported.

The warehouse, called Ghost Ship, on 1315, 31^st Avenue, was used as a residence and performance place by those who could not afford a home elsewhere. Harris, Almena’s alleged partner-in-crime, lived in the Ghost Ship and reportedly helped plan the December, 2016 concert during which the deadly fire broke out, killing 36 people, the report added.

According to Mercury News, investigator Cristina Harbison alleged Almena was warned about the danger as he had filled the warehouse with flammable materials before renting it out. Moreover, he is also accused of blocking one of the two exits of the warehouse.

Malley said Almena and Harris “knowingly created a firetrap with inadequate means of escape.” “The paying guests at the event were faced with a nearly impossible labyrinth of the defendants’ making to get out of that building,” she said at a press conference Monday.

Speaking to the Today Show after the deadly fire, Almena said at the time, “I’m only here to say one thing: I’m incredibly sorry and that everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together. People didn’t walk through those doors because it was a horrible place. People didn’t seek us out to perform and express themselves because it was a horrible place.”

Read: Oakland warehouse fire: First photos of young victims of rave tragedy

Defending himself during the interview, Almena said he lived in the same warehouse with his family, like other artists. “This is profit? The loss of mass life? I’m a father. I lay my three children down there every night. Profit? This is not profit, this is a loss. This is a mass grave,” he said at the time.

Meanwhile, Almena’s lawyers released a statement Monday stating they plan to “vigorously defend” their client. “We believe that these charges represent no less than a miscarriage of justice, and we are confident that this attempt to make a scapegoat out of our client will fail,” their attorneys were quoted in the Mercury News report.

If convicted, both Derick Almena and Max Harris may face up to 39 years in jail.