First Suits Filed in Oakland Ghost Ship Fire
The first lawsuits have been filed in the Oakland Ghost Ship fire, accusing the building owners of negligence and wrongful death.
The December 2, 2016 fire killed 36 attendees of an electronic dance music event at a warehouse named Ghost Ship. Two suits were filed Friday in Alameda County Superior Court by the families of Michela Gregory and Griffin Madden naming Chor Nar Siu Ng individually and as Trustee for the Chor Nar Siu Ng Irrevocable Trust, Eva Ng, Derick Ion Almena, Micah Allison, Daniel Lopez, Omar Vega, John Hrabko, 100% Silk and Joel Shanahan, aka Golden Donna.
The suit does not name the city of Oakland nor any fire officials, but it does allege that at least 5 formal complaints had been made to the city since 2014, including:
- November 14. 2016: “Illegal interior building structure”
- November 13, 2016: “There are a ton of garbage piling up on the property on 1305 31st A venue. Also, a lot of items are left on the sidewalk near the property. Some trash was hazardous. This property is a storage but the owner turned it to become trash recycle site. the [sic] yard became a trash collection site and the main building was remodel for residential. The change causes our neighborhood looks very bad and creates health issue.”
- October 7, 2014: “Constructing house/structure without permits”
- September 30, 2014: “Pallets, construction materials blocking sidewalk”
- June 4. 2014: “trash & debris. construction debris. vector issues”
The families have filed civil claims with the city, a necessary predicate to filing suits against municipalities.
Here is a copy of the Madden complaint: madden-v-chor-nar-siu-ng
It’s amazing… we keep having these “public assembly” fires time after time, year after year, with hundreds of people killed annually… yet We. Do. Not. Learn.
Unlicensed or uninspected premises. No fire sprinklers, no alarms, do-it-yourself electrical work, half-assed carpentry, delayed reporting to fire department, locked/blocked exits, flammable decorations, overcrowding, no training for staff… it happens time after time after time.
Iroquois Theatre, Rhythm Club, Cocoanut Grove, Beverly Hills, Happy Land, Gulliver’s, The Station, and now The Ghost Ship. And those are just the ones I remember from this country!
WHEN will we pull our heads out of our @sses and GET SERIOUS about fire safety?!?
And, yes, I understand that the Ghost Ship was not primarily a public assembly, but that was the use the night of the fire. If you want to put it in terms of a work place, we also have Triangle Shirt Waist, Imperial Foods, Ohio State Prison, and others.
Underground partygoers do not care about safety. They just want to let loose, unfortunately.