Ghost Ship warehouse site in Oakland, where 36 died in fire, is sold to community group
OAKLAND — The site of the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, where dozens of people were killed in a 2016 fire, has been acquired by a nonprofit organization for possible redevelopment as low-income housing.
The converted artists’ warehouse was quietly razed this month in preparation for the potential project by the Unity Council, the community development group based in Oakland that acquired the property.
The council’s CEO, Chris Iglesias, told the Bay Area News Group last week that the group planned to proceed carefully, knowing how sensitive the issue is for the families of the 36 people who died when a fire broke out in the warehouse during a Dec. 2, 2016, electronic music party.
“We just want to be really, really thoughtful in this process and just understand what a tragic event this was to them,” he said.
For more than two years, the gray converted warehouse — where a massive fire killed at least 36 people Friday night — had been on Oakland officials’ radar.
The cause of the blaze was never pinpointed, but a likely electrical overload filled the warehouse with smoke and flames that quickly trapped the partygoers inside. The building had been illegally converted into a live-work space and lacked functioning exits and fire extinguishers. A jumble of extension cords, rugs, old sofas and other flammable items crammed the structure.
Prosecutors charged Derick Almena, the master tenant on the lease who also lived in the building with his wife and children, and resident Max Harris with the deaths. A jury acquitted Harris in 2019, but Almena’s trial ended in a hung jury.
In 2021, he pleaded guilty to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter and served the rest of his sentence under home arrest.
Victims’ relatives and friends packed the courtroom for his trial.
The fire exposed flaws in Oakland’s fire inspections, and the city settled lawsuits from victims and their families for $33 million.
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