3 injured in boat explosion after gas pumped into fishing rod holder
Posted 2:52 PM, June 4, 2017, by Tribune Media Wire, Updated at 02:51PM, June 4, 2017
2 from Charlotte hurt in Ocean Isle boat explosion, officials say
WSOC - Charlotte, NC
OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. — Three people were injured after a boat exploded while parked at a dock along the North Carolina coast, according to WECT.
According to reports, the incident happened on Friday when two people fueling the boat accidentally put 28 gallons of gas into a fishing rod holder.
Jeff Williamson told WECT he noticed a sheen of gas on the water and told them about their mistake. He advised they call a tow company instead of cranking the boat because it might cause an explosion.
When the boaters disconnected the battery cables, a spark ignited the gasoline and caused the explosion.
David Martin Jr., 40, of Charlotte; passenger Jonathan Bickett, 35, of Charlotte; and Kendrick Schwarz, 24, of Brunswick County were injured. Martin and Bickett were airlifted to a local burn clinic where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Crews had the boat fire out in less than 15 minutes. A nearby restaurant and fishing center had to be temporarily evacuated.
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Three injured in Ocean Isle Beach boat explosion Friday, June 2nd 2017, 4:27 pm EDTSaturday, June 3rd 2017, 4:54 pm EDT
By: WECT Staff
(Source: Viewer submitted)
The boat that burned Friday afternoon in Ocean Isle Beach. (Source: WECT)
Smoke from a boat on fire in Ocean Isle Beach on Friday. (Source: Brian Gobble)
(Source: @ginakingdeans/Twitter)
(Source: Mason Estep/Twitter) OCEAN ISLE BEACH, NC (WECT) -
Three people were injured when a boat exploded in Ocean Isle Beach on Friday afternoon.
EMS crews arrived on the scene shortly after 4 p.m. at the Ocean Isle Fishing Company on Causeway Drive.
NC Wildlife Resource Commission Master Officer Scott Pritchard said the victims were boat owner and operator David Richard Martin Jr., 40, of Charlotte; passenger Jonathan Leslie Bickett, 35, of Charlotte and Sea Tow employee Kendrick Stanley Schwarz, 24, of Brunswick County.
Martin and Bickett were airlifted to the Chapel Hill Burn Clinic. As of Saturday, Bickett is in good condition and Martin is in fair condition according to Tom Hughes at the Burn Clinic. Schwarz was taken to the Grand Strand Medical Center.
Pritchard said Martin and Bickett were fueling up the boat, but instead of putting fuel in the gas tank, 28 gallons of gas went into a fishing rod holder.
Jeff Williamson, who runs a fishing charter out of Ocean Isle Beach, said he warned Martin and Bickett before the explosion.
"I noticed a sheen of gas on the water and thought he might have misfueled," Williamson said. "I advised him he better call a tow company to tow him back to the marina instead of cranking the boat because it might explode. The inevitable happened."
Sea Tow's Schwarz arrived and advised the pair to disconnect battery cables so a spark would not ignite the gas.
However, when they were disconnecting the cables, a spark ignited the gasoline, causing the explosion.
"I've seen a boat explode before with a fuel leak, so I was aware of what would happen if a spark got in that much fuel," Williamson said.
The nearby restaurant and fishing center were evacuated. It took crews 10 to 15 minutes to put out the fire.
"I've been to Fort Fisher when they do the cannon firings," Williamson said. "It was like a cannon exploded and then it was just a huge ball of fire with a lot of black smoke."
Pritchard said a wildlife officer in the Chapel Hill area went to the hospital and that Martin and Bickett were able to talk to the officer.
BRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4)– Fire investigators believe welding is likely the cause of a massive fire in Brighton that destroyed several businesses.
The fire broke out on North Main Street in Brighton on Friday afternoon. Firefighters say multiple flammable materials inside the building, which housed several businesses, caused explosions.
(credit: CBS)
Fire crews were forced to fight the fire from outside the building. Investigators believe welding at the body shop ignited the fire.
Several nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution. All those families were back home by Saturday morning.
Copter4 flew over the burning building in Brighton (credit: CBS)
The building housed a market, hair salon and auto body shop.
All three businesses were destroyed.
(credit: CBS)
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Welding work on SUV “most likely caused” explosive Brighton fire
Commercial building blaze on Friday affected several businesses in commercial structure
Natalie Ridderbos, Brighton Fire spokeswoman Brighton Fire Rescue battled a fire that consumed a tire shop, sounding off loud pops believed to be tires exploding and sending dark plumes into the sky on June 2, 2017.
By Jon Murray | jmurray@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
June 3, 2017 at 7:21 pm
A fire that consumed an auto body shop, a market and a hair salon originated in the shop’s vehicle maintenance area, Brighton Fire Rescue said Saturday.
Tires exploded as the fire engulfed the commercial building Friday afternoon and evening, sending plumes of smoke that were visible for miles. The building is on North Main Street near Longs Peak Street.
Natalie Ridderbos, a Brighton Fire Rescue spokeswoman, said in a news release Saturday evening that an investigation found that the fire started in the auto shop’s maintenance area. It was “most likely caused by welding work being conducted on an SUV,” Ridderbos said.
As firefighters fought the blaze, nearby homes were evacuated. Nobody was injured, but the fire department said the building was a total loss.
DARLINGTON, SC (WBTW) – Officials say an employee has died following an accident involving a forklift at Darlington Shredding.
Darlington Shredding is a scrap metal dealer located on Steel Mill Road in Darlington.
Lt. Robert Kilgo with the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office says a “workplace accident” took place around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning. The death is not suspicious in nature, Lt. Kilgo says.
The Darlington County coroner has not yet released the person’s identity or how th
ey died.
Jimmy Larsen, left, and his sister Brittney Larsen in an undated photo. (Kimberly Larsen)
Mom fears improper maintenance in son's freak death on party bus
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Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
Chicago Tribune
Jimmy Larsen planned to be at Northerly Island next weekend, catching the Dave Matthews Band concert with his sister Brittney, waiting for favorite songs like "Warehouse," "Sister" or "Bartender."
He also particularly loved the song "The Best of What's Around," and to the 27-year-old, yet another DMB concert – he'd already been to more than 30 – was exactly that: the best way to spend time.
Larsen died early Saturday morning on the Tri-State Tollway, on his way home to Libertyville in a 2012 Freightliner limo, or what's commonly known as a party bus, officials said.
Now, his mom, Kimberly Larsen, said the entire family plans to attend the concert as a way of honoring the phenomenal writer, middle child, football- and dog-loving technology genius.
"He was going to go with Brittney. They went every year; it was an annual tradition," she said Sunday. "We're going to go in his honor. He'll be there; he'll be with us."
Illinois State Police responded to I-294 North at Lake Cook Road near Deerfield about 3 a.m. Saturday after a report that a man had fallen out the party bus doors and into traffic where he was struck by a black SUV that failed to stop after the collision, officials said. According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, Larsen's death was accidental, and the result of multiple blunt force injuries after being struck by a motor vehicle.
Jimmy Larsen, right, with his siblings Joe, left, and Brittney, center, in an undated photo. (Kimberly Larsen)
Initial reports indicated Larsen went to turn up the volume on the radio when he somehow stumbled and, in an instant, he fell from the bus onto the pavement below. Investigators believe his weight alone, as it unexpectedly pressed against the glass of the door, was enough to throw it open, sending him tumbling outside.
"It was just a freak accident is basically what it was," said Master Sgt. Heather Poerio. "One of the passengers stood up near the driver, and he was adjusting the radio and he fell. He fell down the stairs and out the door of the bus."
Kimberly Larsen said she believed her son was celebrating a birthday of a former co-worker at Uline, a shipping supply and packaging company where he had been a customer service representative.
She said she thought the group of co-workers had been in Rosemont for some dinner and drinks. The bus was a way to travel safely. She said her son's car was parked at Gurnee Mills, where he had planned to leave it.
"He was a wonderful young man whose life was cut short. He had his entire life ahead of him. And then this — I don't even want to say accident — it feels like this could have been avoided so easily," Kimberly Larsen said.
She said her son, who was a University of Missouri graduate, loved to write and he maintained a blog. He loved Apple products and was a wiz when it came to technology. He also loved his dogs, Ellie, a yellow Lab, and Naomi, a black Lab. His younger brother Joe is getting married this year — it will be the first big life milestone among her three kids, Kimberly Larsen said — and Jimmy was supposed to be the best man.
"I am crushed by this. I will never be the same," she said, as she began to cry.
Larsen is concerned the door her son fell out of — a single-pane hydraulic door, not the double-paned doors that connect in the middle with a rubber seal — was not properly maintained and malfunctioned when her son fell against it.
"One of the gals who was with them is very pregnant, really far along. I mean this could've been an unborn child as well. It's just crazy to me that this could've been even worse," she said.
She added that a cursory glance online shows how frequent such accidents are. Illinois State Police spokesman Master Sgt. Jason Bradley said in more than 15 years in law enforcement he has never encountered or heard of this type of accident but, in the wake of Saturday's incident, he has since been told it's more common than one would think.
In California in 2013, a 24-year-old man was changing the music that was playing when he fell through a door onto the 101 Freeway, where he was struck by several vehicles near Universal City. The Los Angeles city attorney's office filed criminal charges — related to safety issues — the following year against the owner of the party bus, and the victim's family pursued a wrongful death claim.
In 2014, the Los Angeles Times cited a report that linked 21 deaths to party buses nationwide between 2009 and 2013 — the majority involving passengers falling from the vehicle. In four of the cases, passengers died after striking a highway overpass. It also reported that business was booming, with 6,000 party bus carriers in California alone in 2009 and 9,000 in 2014.
Investigators are still looking for the driver of the black SUV whose bumper was left behind after the accident, Bradley said. While troopers will continue that investigation, he explained that a commercial vehicle enforcement officer also was called to the scene in the early hours of Saturday morning to launch an investigation into a separate set of federal motor carrier safety regulations that businesses must abide by. No citations had been issued as of Sunday, he said.
"A full inspection will be done on that," Bradley said. "They will examine how the doors opened, if it's a safety flaw, if nothing mechanical went wrong, if there is a locking mechanism that should've been locked that wasn't — there are several different ways those doors could've opened and it will be investigated and looked into. All of that is putting the cart before the horse though because we don't know at this point if there was a flaw, if there was a violation."
Kimberly Larsen said she's worried there is a pattern of the hydraulics not being maintained and that issue may be leading to these types of tragedies.
"I don't know how a door on a bus opens when you're in transit; that's not right. It shouldn't happen that way," she said.
She said she doesn't know exactly what happened on the bus, but the fact that there have been similar accidents on other party buses is cause for concern."I want to put the word out. I want this to never happen to another family," she said.
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A suburban Illinois man died in what police called a "freak accident" early Saturday, tumbling out of a moving party bus while attempting to turn up the radio.
James J. Larsen, 27, was on the bus as it headed northbound on I-294 near Lake Cook Road in Northbrook at about 3 a.m., Illinois State Police said in a release.
He was trying to turn up the radio volume when authorities said he tripped, falling down the stairs and out the bus door. He then fell backwards onto the expressway and an unknown car struck him, according to police.
Larsen, of Libertyville, was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
Man Dies in 'Freak Accident' on Party Bus: Police
Illinois State Police investigate the scene on I-294 near Lake Cook Road, where a 27-year-old man was killed in a 'freak accident' on a moving party bus early Saturday. (Published Saturday, June 3, 2017)
Larsen, who often went by Jim or Jimmy, "was a very smart young man, doing the right thing - not drinking and driving. He was out with his friends having a good time," his mother said in a statement. "We were so proud of him and so saddened that his life was cut short. He had his whole life ahead of him."
"We loved him so very much," she added. "He was truly the love of our family."
"Our only hope is that something good comes out of this senseless tragedy and this NEVER happens to another family," her statement ended.
No foul play is suspected and authorities said they do not currently believe anything criminal occurred, according to Illinois State Police.
However, they continue to search for the driver of the car that struck Larsen for questioning, adding that it's possible the driver did not realize they had struck someone. Investigators recovered a part of the car's bumper at the scene and are trying to determine what kind of vehicle it came from, police said.
The party bus was described as a 2012 freightliner party limo with a capacity of 32 people, according to police. 25 to 30 people were onboard the bus at the time of crash, authorities said, and the driver of the bus may have been going about 70 mph.
Officials said the bus door was a single-pane door activated by hydraulic pressure that opens and slides out, rather than a traditional double door as seen on most school buses.
Police are investigating why the door opened, and whether it may have malfunctioned during the incident.
Safety on party buses has been in the spotlight in recent years, with numerous fatal accidents reported across the country.
A similar incident occurred on a party bus in Los Angeles in 2015. Christopher Saraceno, 24, lost his balance, fell down the stairs and out the door before being struck and killed.
Without strict regulatory oversight, experts urge passengers to use extra caution when aboard a party bus.
"We will just have to check ourselves," said National Safety Council spokeswoman Maureen Vogel. "We want celebrations to be celebrations and not turn into tragedies."
"We definitely need to just be aware of our surroundings," Vogel added. "Just because someone else is driving the vehicle doesn't mean that we shouldn't exercise the same safety that we would if we were the driver."
The two right lanes of northbound I-294 were closed following Saturday's crash, but reopened several hours later.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to police.
Tuesday, June 06, 2017 11:59AM
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Houston man is dead after a bizarre accident on the Pierce Elevated.
Tuesday around 6 a.m., a driver going southbound on Pierce Elevated near Houston Avenue lost one of its tires. Police said the tire sheared off at the axle of the truck, then crossed over the barrier wall between lanes and slammed into an SUV going northbound.
SkyEye was over the scene moments after the accident. The driver of the SUV has been identified as Abdias Layva.
According to traffic investigators, metal fatigue is to blame for the tire coming off of the F-150.
There were big delays on both sides of the highway, shutting down the northbound lanes of the Gulf Freeway. Those lanes have since reopened.
At one point, Eyewitness News Traffic Reporter Katherine Whaley said the crash slowed traffic down to 5 mph.
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HOUSTON, TEXAS – A tire flew off a pickup truck and went into oncoming traffic, killing a driver on I-45 in downtown Houston early Tuesday.
The incident blocked all northbound lanes of the Pierce Elevated/I-45 near Bagby for about three hours. That's where investigators and wrecker drivers were looking over the victim's SUV.
According to the Houston Police Department, the incident happened just before 6 a.m. when the tire broke off of an older Ford F-150 pickup traveling in the southbound lanes near San Jacinto. The tire bounced and flew over the middle concrete barrier into the northbound lanes striking another vehicle.
“This wheel, this entire wheel assembly, wasn’t just a tire, breaks off the vehicle, bounces into the northbound lanes, and actually strikes a second vehicle in the windshield, directly, unfortunately over the driver of that vehicle,” HPD Capt. William McPherson said.
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — The cause of a fast-moving fire that ripped through Lopes Square restaurants Saturday night was accidental and likely caused by an overloaded power strip, according to fire officials.
The fire that caused about $1 million in damages started in the second-floor office of the Red Shack restaurant at 315 Commercial St., according to a statement by state Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey and Provincetown Fire Chief Michael S. Trovato.
“An extension cord was plugged into a power strip, which in turn had several items plugged into it,” the men said in a joint statement on the Provincetown Police Department Facebook page. “Due to the extent of the damage, the fire will remain officially undetermined, but there is no evidence of any other cause than an overloaded extension cord.”
Flames shot as high as 20 feet in the air and restaurant patrons raced outdoors when the fire struck the Red Shack before moving to Tatiana’s Foot Long Hot Dogs and Surf Club Restaurant.
A Red Shack employee looked into the attic and saw flames after the restaurant’s computers stopped working around 6 p.m. on the first busy Saturday of the year.
Within minutes, flames were shooting through the roof and moving over to Tatiana’s, which like the Red Shack is a takeout stand, and into the Surf Club, a classic waterfront restaurant that’s been part of Provincetown’s landscape since the 1950s.
The Red Shack and Tatiana’s, which had not yet opened for the season, were destroyed, Trovato said previously.
The fire put at least three dozen people out of work, according to restaurant owners. It also caused minor injuries to a firefighter, according to the joint statement from Ostroskey and Trovato.
Ostroskey advised people to avoid overloading outlets and circuits by plugging too many things into them and to limit extension cords to temporary use.
“Many people leave them in place permanently and forget about them,” Ostroskey said in the statement.
Extension cords are particularly dangerous when used with appliances that generate heat such as space heaters, irons and toasters, he said.
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The charred Oakland warehouse known as the Ghost Ship, a converted artists residence and underground concert venue where 36 people died during a December 2016 blaze. A memorial is outside at lower left. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
James Queally, Richard Winton and Paige St. John
Two people have been charged with involuntary manslaughter after they “knowingly created a fire trap” inside an Oakland warehouse where a fire killed 36 during an electronic dance music concert late last year, prosecutors said Monday.
Derick Ion Almena, 47, the property manager who converted the warehouse into an artists residence and underground concert venue known as the Ghost Ship, and Max Harris, who served as the venue’s “creative director” and ran the concert that took place on the night of the blaze, were arrested Monday and charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, according to Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy E. O’Malley.
Almena and Harris allowed as many as 25 people to illegally reside in the warehouse, failed to provide any fire suppression equipment and filled the building with flammable materials from “floor-to-ceiling,” creating a deadly “labyrinth” from which the victims had little chance to escape, according to a probable cause statement filed Monday.
On the night of the fire, Harris rented the upstairs portion of the warehouse to a promoter and was on the premises to oversee the event. During preparation for the electronic dance show, Harris allegedly blocked off a second stairwell that had served as an exit, leaving guests only one way out when flames began to devour the building.
The building’s power failed almost as soon as the fire began, and those trying to flee had to navigate a narrow, wooden staircase that some witnesses described as a “gang plank” as they ran from the flames. Almena had previously ordered the illegal construction of that staircase, prosecutors alleged Monday.
The district attorney said Almena and Harris “knowingly created a fire trap, with inadequate means of escape. They then filled that area with human beings.”
Harris was arrested in Los Angeles County on Monday morning, and Almena was captured in Lake County, O’Malley said. It was not immediately clear when they would appear in court to answer the charges.
Investigators conducted 75 interviews, executed 12 search warrants, reviewed 6,000 documents or pages of reports and catalogued 300 pieces of evidence during the months-long investigation, she said.
“We continue to mourn the loss of the 36 young and vibrant men and women, 36 members of our community who should be with us today,” O’Malley said.
Assistant Dist. Atty. Teresa Drenick would not say if anyone else, including building owner Chor N. Ng, would face charges in connection with the fatal fire.
“As of today, the charges that we’ve filed are the charges that stand,” she said.
Drenick also said the cause of the fire will likely remain undetermined, as the blaze swallowed up most of the evidence arson investigators would need to determine what started the fire.
The Oakland warehouse known as the Ghost Ship lies in ruins after a fire that killed 36 people. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Deadly inferno, serious questions
The warehouse fire broke out during a Dec. 2 concert, trapping scores of attendees inside. All of the victims died of smoke inhalation, according to coroner’s reports. They ranged in age from 17 to 61.
The deadly inferno has opened the city to rampant criticism. Public records revealed that police and fire officials had been called to the building several times amid mounting evidence it had been converted into an illegal residence.
Oakland officials have repeatedly denied that fire and building officials were aware of the danger within the heavily cluttered 10,000-square-foot warehouse. The fire chief has insisted that the department never inspected the location or responded to a dispatch call there in more than a decade, and that city officials believed it was used as a warehouse, not as a concert and living space.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf applauded the charges Monday.
“The reckless and deceptive actions of Derick Almena and Max Harris claimed 36 innocent lives,” she said in a statement. “For years, they worked hard to escape legal scrutiny and deceive City officials. Because of their callous disregard for human life, they deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
A city building inspector who visited the warehouse just before the fire was unable to gain access to it, officials say.
In the probable cause statement, prosecutors said Almena and Harris repeatedly lied when asked by police or fire officials if people lived inside the building. Almena allowed more than two dozen people to reside in the building at one time, charging between $300 and $1,400 rent for a space in the ramshackle housing, court documents show.
Numerous code enforcement complaints
Public records released by the city in February show the building had been subject to at least 10 code enforcement complaints. City officials also visited the warehouse numerous times in the years before the deadly blaze.
The warehouse was one of several properties owned by Ng. Her daughter, Eva Ng, 36, has said the building was leased as a studio space for the art collective and was not used as residences.
Almena, the last lessee on the building, had advertised the building on Craigslist as a "hybrid museum, sunken pirate ship, shingled funhouse, and guerrilla gallery.” He lived in the Ghost Ship with his girlfriend, Micah Allison, and their three children. They were not present the night it burned.
In a disjointed interview on NBC’s “Today” show conducted just days after the fire, Almena offered an apology, but bristled when asked if he should be held accountable for the deadly blaze.
“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,” he said. “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.”
I’m incredibly sorry and ... everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together. — Derick Ion Almena
In a statement, Almena attorneys Jeffrey Krasnoff, Kyndra Miller and J. Tony Serra said they “intend to vigorously defend him in the court of law.”
“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.”
The litigators have previously said the officials investigating the case have a “conflict of interest” because they were likely to face civil suits in connection with the fire. The families of the victims filed a civil suit naming Chor Ng, Almena, Allison and Harris — under the name “Max Ohr” — and PG&E as defendants earlier this year.
Jean M. Daly, a former prosecutor in Los Angeles and San Francisco who led the arson units and now is in private practice, said “it is a novel theory to say they created a situation so hazardous that it rises to the level of involuntary manslaughter.”
She said prosecutors are going to have to present evidence that the pair’s “negligence rose to a level where they knew it would happen.”
That, she said, is very high standard given prosecutors won’t be able to tell jurors how the fire started because they say they are not sure.
“They have an undetermined origin and cause, and that is a problem for prosecutors,” she said. “That is an awful tough case to make.”
Daly said defense lawyers will seek to undermine the prosecutors’ theory with underlying issue of them not knowing its “origin and cause.” She said they will seek to suggest that the cause was unpredictable and series of events so rare that no one could foresee the deadly sequence.
“When you don't know the origin and cause, that makes for reasonable doubt,” she said.
Former Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, however, said Almena’s and Harris’ careless behavior is likely to resonate with jurors.
“It is not so much the cause of fire that matters. Much more important is recklessness in having that building packed with stuff and occupied in violation of just about every safety code in the city and the state,” he said.
What caused the fire?
Earlier this year, Almena’s legal team released a 10-page report claiming the fire actually started in an adjacent building.
People who had lived in the Ghost Ship building or attended events there described a maze-like fire trap filled with wooden pallets, propane tanks and gas-powered generators that could have either served as tinder or exploded during a fire.
Shelley Mack, who said she paid $700 to live in a trailer near the building from November 2014 to February 2015, said the building was overcrowded. She shared a bathroom with as many as 20 tenants, depending on the day, and the building often lacked heat or power.
“There was no electricity, and it was freezing in there,” she told The Times last year.
In the months after the fire, investigators with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scoured the charred husk of the warehouse.
The civil suit describes the warehouse as a “death trap that contained a maze of makeshift rooms, alcoves and partitions.”
”It was cluttered with carvings, mannequins, paintings, artwork, scraps of wood, pianos, furniture, tapestries and several recreational vehicles,” according to the suit, which claims the building did not have adequate fire safety measures, extinguishers or overhead sprinklers.
Prior to the fire, Harris warned the building’s owners that its electrical system was subject to “overexertion.” A former resident of the Ghost Ship also told the owners that people were illegally residing inside the warehouse, and the landlords agreed that “was a problem,” according to the suit.
Numerous residents had also warned Almena of the unsafe conditions at the building, the complaint said.
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Lawyers representing Derick Ion Almena, the manager of the Ghost Ship warehouse, say negligence on the part of Oakland city officials was to blame for a fire that killed 36 people this month, and not their client.
In a joint statement released Monday, the lawyers said Alameda County officials who are now investigating the blaze have a “conflict of interest” and that Almena will likely be made a scapegoat in the deadly Dec. 2 blaze.
“It is our fear that improper charges could be brought against Derick and others by Alameda County in order to divert attention away from their own irresponsible agencies,” the lawyers said. “It is our intention, if the need arises, to defend vigorously by showing that the real culprits are the above agencies who didn’t do their jobs.”
Almena, 47, is being represented attorneys J. Tony Serra, Jeffrey Krasnoff and Kyndra Miller. Sierra, a firebrand attorney legendary for his defense of the Black Panthers, former SLA member Sara Jane Olson and Hells Angels leader George Christie, said government agencies fear massive payouts as a result of civil litigation.
“Undoubtedly, there will be a civil case by decedents’ representatives who will sue for millions upon millions of dollars,” the attorneys said. “The Alameda Sheriff’s Office, Fire Department, Building Code Inspectors, and Child Protective Services could be potential defendants in such a civil suit. All of them have repeatedly visited the premises without doing anything.”
Oakland officials have repeatedly denied that fire and building officials were aware of the danger within the heavily cluttered 10,000-square-foot warehouse. The fire chief has insisted that the department never inspected the location or responded to a dispatch call there in more than a decade, and that city officials believed it was used as a warehouse, not as a concert and living space. A city building inspector who visited the address just prior to the fire was unable to gain access to the warehouse, officials say.
In the weeks following the deadly blaze, however, some Ghost Ship visitors say they witnessed city firefighters inside the building. A man who attended a concert in the warehouse in 2014 told The Times that he witnessed firefighters come into the structure and walk around.
As the building’s manager and founder of an artists collective, Almena quickly fell under media scrutiny in the hours following the fire.
In a disjointed interview on NBC’s “Today” days after the fire, Almena offered an apology, but bristled when asked if he should be held accountable for the tragedy.
“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,” he said. “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.”
When asked if he was accountable, he said, “No, I’m not going to answer these questions on this level. I’d rather get on the floor and be trampled by the parents. I’d rather let them tear at my flesh ...”
The warehouse is one of several properties owned by Chor N. Ng. Her daughter, Eva Ng, 36, said the building had been leased as a studio space for the art collective and was not used as residences.
On Monday, Almena’s lawyers said they had conducted their own inquiry into the fire. “Our investigation shows that Derick Almena committed no conduct amounting to criminal negligence,” they said.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has yet to make a final determination on the cause of the fire. The investigation has focused on a first-floor area near the rear of the warehouse and experts are examining the electrical wiring of the building as a potential cause.
The Alameda County’s district attorney has pledged a full and thorough criminal investigation.
Almena, who advertised the building on Craigslist as a "hybrid museum, sunken pirate ship, shingled funhouse, and guerrilla gallery,” lived in the Ghost Ship with his girlfriend, Micah Allison, and their three children. They were not present the night it burned.
Almena has a history of run-ins with authorities.
A friend of Almena’s called Allison’s parents to tell them the warehouse was a dangerous environment for their grandchildren, she told the Times. She said the family complained to the county’s children and family services agency, which removed the children in March of last year.
Almena posted on Facebook about the seizure of his children and his need to pass drug tests and take parenting and violence classes to get them back. The parents regained custody of their children this past summer.
(Source: Viewer submitted)
The boat that burned Friday afternoon in Ocean Isle Beach. (Source: WECT)
Smoke from a boat on fire in Ocean Isle Beach on Friday. (Source: Brian Gobble)
(Source: @ginakingdeans/Twitter)
(Source: Mason Estep/Twitter) OCEAN ISLE BEACH, NC (WECT) - 
