On December 2, 2016, at about 11:20 p.m. PST, a fire started in a former warehouse that had been unlawfully converted into an artist collective with living spaces (named the Ghost Ship) in Oakland, California, which was hosting a concert with 80–100 attendees. The building, located in the Fruitvale neighborhood, was zoned for only industrial purposes; residential and entertainment uses were prohibited. The blaze killed 36 people, making it the deadliest fire in the history of Oakland. It was also the deadliest building fire in the United States since The Station nightclub fire in 2003, the deadliest in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the deadliest mass-casualty event in Oakland since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Master tenant Derick Almena lived on the premises with his wife and three children, and sub-let the first floor to about 20 other residents who were instructed not to divulge that they lived there. In Almena's lease for the building, he did not say that it would be used as a residence, and on two occasions he told police that nobody lived in the building. The Alameda County district attorney's office launched an investigation into the fire's causes, and in 2017 charged Almena and his assistant Max Harris with felony involuntary manslaughter. In 2018, both pleaded no contest to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a plea bargain with prosecutors, but the judge overseeing the case discarded the plea deals and the men were tried in court, facing as many as 36 years in prison.
On September 4, 2019, the jury deadlocked 10–2 for conviction on the 36 counts of manslaughter against Almena, resulting in a mistrial, while Harris was acquitted on all 36 counts. In 2021, Almena pled guilty to the 36 counts and was sentenced to 12 years in prison and released for time served.
In July 2020, the city of Oakland settled a civil lawsuit for the victims and agreed to pay $33 million: $9 million to one person who survived with lifelong injuries and $24 million to the families of the 36 who were killed in the fire. In August 2020, Pacific Gas and Electric Company settled a civil lawsuit for 32 of the victims for an undisclosed amount.
The 9,880-square-foot (918 m2) 160-by-48-foot (49 by 15 m) cement-block warehouse was constructed in 1930. The property was purchased in 1988 by Chor Ng, who is linked to 17 other properties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ng also owned a body shop, cell phone store, and other businesses nearby. The autobody shop and the cell-phone store shared their electrical supply with the Ghost Ship. One former resident reported that the building's electrical system was entirely dependent on extension cords, and she was so concerned about safety that she would sleep in her car.
Ng leased the property to Derick Almena and Nicholas Bouchard in 2013. They stated in the lease agreement that the property would be used as an artist collective "to build and create theatrical sets and offer workshops for community outreach." Almena named the building the Ghost Ship. He lived on the second floor with his wife and three children. He illegally sublet space on the first floor, charging about 25 resident artists rent ranging between $300 and $600 per month. The monthly rate for a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland at the time typically exceeded $2,000.
Almena instructed resident members of the collective, informally called Satya Yuga, to tell others that the warehouse was a 24-hour art studio and to not divulge that they lived there. In 2014 or 2015, Almena told police that no one lived in the building, and he repeated the same statement several months before the fire. A former tenant claimed that Almena used the tenants' rent to cover the warehouse rent and used proceeds from the parties to pay his living expenses.
Use of the warehouse building for housing and entertainment was illegal. Living spaces on the first floor were connected by makeshift hallways constructed of "aggregates of salvaged and scavenged materials, such as pianos, organs, windows, wood benches, lumber, and innumerable other items stacked next to and on top of each other." The live-work spaces were separated by objects such as "wooden studs, steel beams, doors, window frames, bed frames, railings, pianos, benches, chairs, intact motorhomes and trailers, portions of trailers, corrugated metal sheeting, tapestries, plywood, sculptures, tree stumps and tree limbs."
Almena said that he and his family slept in the warehouse. Residents and others verified that the family lived on the second floor and that Almena rented space to as many as 18 others who lived in recreational vehicles (RVs) and makeshift rooms on the first floor. One longtime resident of the warehouse described the building as "a whole maze to get through," filled with wooden objects. He moved away because it was "too sketchy to continue to stay there." One victim of the fire was a building resident.
The city had received 10 complaints about the property since 1998, including formal complaints about hazardous garbage and construction debris around the building. The Oakland Planning and Building Department opened an investigation on November 13, 2016 based on a complaint about "blight" and "illegal interior construction." City building inspectors visited the warehouse on November 17, confirming the report of blight, but when no one answered the door, were unable to enter to investigate the report of illegal construction.
Inspectors are required to obtain permission from owners to gain entry; when permission is not granted, they must obtain a court order. A spokesperson for the Planning and Building Department stated that promoters of events such as the December 2 concert are required to obtain a special permit, but none had been issued. The city of Oakland's planning director revealed that the building had not been inspected for three decades.
Although police and fire officials warned that the warehouse was a fire hazard, Almena was reported to have ignored these concerns. The vice president of the local firefighters' union said that the fire marshal's office had been understaffed for years and felt that a proper fire inspection "would have shut the place down." On December 13, the Oakland fire chief said that "there were no indications this was an active business," that there were no department records of complaints about the building and that the department "inspects businesses, not buildings."
Max Ohr, creative director of the artist collective, claimed that the collective had reported electrical problems to Almena. The Mercury News reported that Almena had complained in early 2015 to the building owner's son Kai Ng that electricity in the building used "ancient and violated lines of distribution" that were "in dire need of a total and immediate upgrade". Ng's email reply argued that the "lack of electrical infrastructure" was clearly communicated to Almena when the lease was signed.
Following a 2014 small fire in the autobody shop, entrepreneur Ben Cannon reported to Ng that the fire was caused by a "catastrophically overloading" power system and replaced a burnt transformer with a cheaper one. In an email Cannon told Ng that "we are going to use it a little bit differently than standard." In response to a 2018 civil suit brought against the Ngs by the victims' families, the Ngs denied being "negligent or careless" and blamed Cannon for the Ghost Ship fire, claiming that he had misrepresented himself as a licensed electrician. When Cannon was asked in a deposition whether or not he had been present in the warehouse and if he had a contractor's license to perform the work, he refused to answer.
An attorney representing victims' families stated: "They were on notice that there was [sic] problems with the electricity."
On the night of December 2, Harris hosted an electronic-music concert featuring performers from house music record label 100% Silk and other independent musicians. Between 80 and 100 people attended the event. Almena's wife and daughters stayed at a hotel so that the girls could sleep.