PD Editorial: Haunting lessons from the Ghost Ship warehouse fire

Building regulations. Permits. Code enforcement. It’s all bureaucracy and red tape – until it isn’t. Then it becomes a stark reminder of why such rules exist.

The city of Oakland and all the Bay Area was hit with such a reminder on Friday when fire swept through a Fruitvale District warehouse, claiming the lives of 36 people, including 35-year-old Barrett Clark, a graduate of Santa Rosa High School. The story that is emerging from the deadliest fire in a decade is one of a complete disregard, by a number of individuals, for safety regulations, resulting in a tragedy that was waiting to happen.

What’s clear is that it was no secret that people were living inside the structure known as the Ghost Ship. It also was no secret that it was a firetrap, stuffed with furniture, makeshift electrical wiring, pianos, paintings, beds, lamps and sundry other collectables. The upper floor was served by two stairwells including one that was partly made up of wooden pallets. As a result, when the fire started, the building “went up like a matchstick,” said one observer. The fire apparently started on the first floor, trapping those who had gathered on the second for a music performance, said Jill Snyder, special agent in charge of the San Francisco office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “(The) occupants were consumed by smoke before they could get out of the building,” she said Wednesday.

What makes this tragedy all the more heart-rending is the trail of opportunities that were missed to prevent this from happening. According to city records, citizens filed at least four complaints about what was happening at the Ghost Ship, but for reasons that so far are not clear, little was done.

City planners acknowledge that the property was only permitted to be used as a warehouse. They also acknowledge that investigators had visited the site as recently as Nov. 17 in response to complaints of unpermitted activity at the warehouse. But they left after they were unable to access the building.

Yes, Oakland has much work ahead in explaining why more wasn’t done to address this firetrap and what will be different going forward to assure the public that this won’t happen again. But city officials are not alone in neglecting their responsibilities.

Based on the information to date, blame also belongs with the operator and tenant of the site, Derick Ion Almena, who clearly understood the dangers that the Bohemian gathering spot posed. He has since repeatedly apologized in public for what happened. The owner, Chor Ng, who is linked to more than 15 other properties around the Bay Area, has reportedly said that she was not aware of what was happening inside her own 10,000-square-foot building. But given the history of what has been happening in that neighborhood and building, color us skeptical. Either way, she should have known.

Finally, some measure of responsibility also belongs with those who entered the Ghost Ship that night. Were some naive? It’s possible. But if so, their presumption of safety was rooted in the knowledge that the vast majority of public buildings we all enter each day are equipped with necessities such as sprinklers, smoke detectors, lighted exit signs and a long list of other things that we all take for granted. Until they save our lives.