OAKLAND – A long awaited report on the cause of December’s Ghost Ship fire released Monday shows extensive damage to the building’s electrical system, including two breaker boxes and a web of extension cords, stymied investigators who have ruled the inferno’s cause cannot be determined.
The fire that killed 36 people could have been started by an electrical failure, the report states, but they were also unable to rule out candles, incense or smoking materials and an open flame as possible causes, according to the 50 page document.
“Extensive use of power taps and extension cords” were found throughout the building. But “forensic examination” of the items “did not reveal a fault or failure that resulted in the fire,” it states. Investigators also examined “two breaker panels (that) were located on the first and second floors but due to extensive fire damage, were unable to determine, what, specifically, the panels powered.”
The fire appeared to burn heavier a few feet off the ground on the first floor, damaging the upper portions of a refrigerator more severely than its lower sections, investigators found.
A week after the fire, investigators for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms examined how power was supplied to the Ghost Ship. Investigators concluded the main subpanel for the warehouse was next door, in a rear room inside Omar Vega’s auto body shop. There, they found two 50 amp circuit breakers “in the tripped or center position.”
“Handwriting on the inside of the panel door identified these as ‘Satya Yuga Main s’ (sic) and Satya Yuga Upstairs,’ ” according to the fire report. That’s a name that Derick Almena, the Ghost Ship’s master tenant, sometimes called the art collective.
All but one of the 36 people who died the night of Dec. 2 were attending a dance party on the second floor of the building, a space Almena often rented out without city permits. He and the collective’s creative director, Max Harris, are charged with 36 counts of manslaughter in Alameda County Superior Court.
Building owner Chor Ng, Almena, PG&E, others have also been named in a wrongful death lawsuit that is in its early stages. The City of Oakland is expected to be named in the suit as soon as this week.
Check back for updates on this breaking story.
via NAIJA Society
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