November 06, 2017 - 12:12 PM
DUBLIN, Calif. - A man charged with involuntary manslaughter in a California warehouse fire that killed 36 people last December says the building's owner shares responsibility for the deaths.
Derick Almena tells KTVU-TV in a jailhouse interview airing Monday he told owner Chor Ng that he planned to use the Oakland warehouse as an arts space and community centre. Almena says she knew people would be coming in and out.
Almena says he thought it would be the building owner's responsibility to inform the city that artists would be occupying it but says city officials never inspected the cluttered warehouse.
Almena calls Ng "deceitful and greedy."
Attorneys for Ng have denied she knew people lived in the warehouse. Keith Bremer, an attorney for Ng, declined to comment.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017