The judge overseeing the sentencing for the two men charged with the deaths of 36 people in the infamous Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland in December 2016 tossed their plea deal on Friday, leaving the men to face trial and potential life sentences instead of the six and nine year sentences they had initially been given.
On Monday, authorities arrested the “master tenant” and the creative director of the illegally-converted Oakland warehouse, known as the “Ghost Ship,” where a large fire took the lives of 36 people in December. The two were charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Less than four months after the devastating “Ghost Ship” blaze, another Oakland building fire has claimed the lives of four people.
On Friday, the arts community in Los Angeles attempted to create its own response to the crackdown on unsafe warehouses throughout the Golden State in the wake of the fire in Oakland’s “Ghost Ship” over two weeks ago in which 36 people died.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) said Tuesday that there is “no final determination” in the Oakland fire that took 36 lives at the “Ghost Ship” warehouse on the night of December 2, but noted that overloaded electrical lines and wiring were “part of the analysis” authorities are looking at in order to determine the origin of the deadly flames.
The death of 36 people in the Oakland fire in the “Ghost Ship” warehouse last Friday night has prompted city officials throughout the Golden State to clamp down on similar warehouses, delivering eviction notices in the hope of preventing such situations in the future.
The “Ghost Ship,” the warehouse and artists’ colony where 36 people lost their lives in the Oakland fire last Friday night, was “a serious attempt to bring the Black Oakland culture back into the art scene,” former resident Alexander Doré told Breitbart News. However, that vision was overrun by what Doré referred to as the “Burning Man crowd.”
The weak inspection system that critics fault for Friday’s deadly Oakland fire has come under new scrutiny following revelations that the city’s fire department has been lax in ensuring the safety of local buildings.
Several victims of Friday’s devastating Oakland fire texted goodbye messages to their families from inside the deadly inferno that has so far claimed 36 lives.
Just five months before the deadly Oakland blaze where at least 36 people perished Friday night, Derick Ion Almena, 46, the man who is considered the brains behind the “Ghost Ship” artists’ colony claimed to be “the thriller love child of Manson, Pol Pot and Hitler,” and said, “I can proverbally [sic] get away with murder.”
The man who heads the “Ghost Ship” artists collective, where the deadly Oakland fire broke out late Friday night, is facing a backlash over an insensitive Facebook post in which he lamented over losing “everything [he] worked so hard for,” as 24 people have been confirmed dead and at least two dozen more are still missing.
The massive Oakland fire that killed at least nine and perhaps dozens more people Friday night at a warehouse artists’ collective known as the “Ghost Ship” symbolizes the Bay Area’s internal struggle with its own success as a creative hub.
The “Ghost Ship” warehouse, where the deadly Oakland fire broke out during a party around 11:30 p.m. on Friday evening, reportedly only had one second-floor exit, down an unstable staircase made of pallets.
