The owners of the converted Oakland warehouse where 36 people died in a fire knew of electrical problems and had already dealt with an earlier blaze, according to a report.
Emails obtained by the San Jose Mercury News show that the Ghost Ship warehouse’s manager, Kai Ng, and Derick Almena, who led an artist’s collective in the building, previously communicated about electrical issues.
Ng discussed the problems with Almena in Feb. 2015, after he was made aware of a 2014 electrical fire from “catastrophically overloading” the power system at an auto shop next door, the newspaper reported.
Investigators have not publicly announced exactly what caused the fire, though multiple Bay Area outlets have been told it came from an overburdened electrical system.
Almena has said that the fire, which killed three dozen people in December, started in the building next to Ghost Ship before spreading and destroying the warehouse where revelers at an electronic dance party died of smoke inhalation.
The Mercury News reported Friday that records show a man with an expired contractor’s license installed a new transformer after the 2014 fire, replacing one that he said had illegal wiring.
The Ngs refused to pay for the unauthorized transformer, or for other upgrades contractor Nick Cannon suggested to make the building safe, according to the report.
One resident of the Ghost Ship collective told the newspaper that he warned Ng and his sister Eva, who managed the building for their mother, about “overexertion” of the power system two months before the fire.
The owners, Almena and others involved in the deadly December party are now the targets of multiple lawsuits from families of the fire victims.
Criminal charges are also possible from county prosecutors.
