Transcripts For KTVU KTVU Fox 2 News At 4pm 20161207

Cristina rendon at the scene now in down oakland. Cristina. The atf special agent in charge spoke with us this afternoon and she says it is still too soon to pinpoint what sparked the fire and the investigators will be looking at the appliances and any Electrical Equipment inside the warehouse as they search for more. Investigators continue the work on the warehouse and they are now 90 complete with debris removal and the victim number still stands at 36. This afternoon though fire crews began knocking down portions of the wall that are structurally unsound and focusing on the upper portions of walls that extended above and beyond the roofline. Fire crews made it clear that they had completely searched the area on foot and with cadaver dogs to make sure that the area was completely clear before they knocked the bricks inward and we do know that fire started in the back of the warehouse. We learned from the alameda sheriff that one source was the refrigerator that reportedly kept shorting out and could have blown a fuse. The sheriff says a survivor told investigators they saw flames coming from the area of the fridge. Thats not definitive yet. The electrical engineer arrived this morning and he is the expert in looking at the electrical appliances, lamps and any kind of cords. He will look at those over the next day or two. And then see if there is any indicators that was the cause but right now that is not definitive. Fire crews anticipate that they will be done digging by midnight. They hope to get everything out and the debris clear should any inclement come through. They do have tarps available if it rains. We ask if they anticipate finding anymore bodies in the 10 of the warehouse they have not searched. They still say it is unknown and cant say whether they will find anymore victims. Hopefully there are no more bodies left to be found. We are learning more about the man that ran that artist collective and leased out the warehouse. Derick almena has a criminal record. A mugshot following his arrest in 2015 in oakland for suspicion of felony possession of stolen property. He pleaded no contest in this case and is currently on probation until the year 2019. Ktvu news lee martinez has been looking into Derick Almena his past. The ghost host was not only Derick Almenas home, he ran two businesses inside and we have been looking to the business and how he ran them. The first floor of the warehouse was where people lived and thats confirmed by people that paid to live in the warehouse. We spoke with a fire survivor name carmen burrito. She lived in the back room on the first floor of the ghost ship warehouse. She paid in cash but not him directly but paid another resident that collected the rent. He wishes to remain anonymous. A rental agreement from rent collected on three different tenants. A rental agreement is for a monthtomonth lease. The manager is leased as sacka uga given to artists and musicians that lived there. All residents agreed to pay rent in cash only and if payment is late the tenant must pay a 450 late fee. We have been trying to track down Derick Almena but we have been unable to reach him. He did make an appearance this morning on the today show where he explained what led him to allow strangers to move in. Your dream is bigger than your pocketbook. When the need for housing and had the need for people to be able to sit down and be warm and make food and take a shower and take a bath and go to bed. So we created something together. Now the rent varied by occupant some tenants played p hundred dollars but this tenant paid 565 on november 21st. The source says Derick Almena deposited a bulk of cash into a bank of america account be longing to the landlord for rent. Presumably the landlord may not have suspected that renters were there because he was getting one payment. Housing was not the primary purpose. He had much bigger dreams for the warehouse and coming up at five i will have more on how Derick Almenas operation worked and how he made money from the shows on the second floor. Since the fire several people have come forward detailing issues at and near the ghost ship warehouse. Officials say they were familiar with the problems at the property and so what if anything was done. Our Crime Reporter henry lee has been looking into the police calls stemming from the warehouse. Heather and ted, workers showed that Oakland Police and Alameda County deputies have been call to deal with harassment disputes and gunshots but despite that there are questions whether the city did enough. Law enforcement and City Building inspectors paid visits to the warehouse known as the ghost ship but did the city do enough about the conditions at this district warehouse before the devastating latenight fire that killed 3 dozen people. A woman flagged down a sheriff about her rv where Derick Almena was convicted of concealing. It was one of several in the building. Although people lived in the structure it was permitted to be a warehouse. In 2015 this man asked for a restraining against Derick Almena. He said i am going to get my gun. Ktvu has requested all police visits to the property and have not got a response yet and not aware if the city knew of the violations. Lin net gibson mcal haney says it raises questions about what the city could have done differently. Are we staffed promotely to respond for these types of complaints. I think it is different. There are buildings that may be housing people legally that foster this and Creative Underground Community and others breaking the law. Oakland police say they are focused on making sure no other remains are at the warehouse. Afterwards police and officials will have a full accounting have they did enough to assess the dangers. Do we know if any fire investigators were call and did they look at the living complications and how many entrances and exits were there. Oakland fire has put a hold on any records related to any of their business. We have heard, heather that fire officials have been visiting other warehouses that face similar scrutiny in the future. Thanks so much, henry. And joining us is ben that lived across the street from the ghost warehouse that went up in flames. Your experience as a neighbor was not such a good one. You did have runins with the People Living there and specifically Derick Almena. The man that is at the center of the fire investigation. Give us a sense of what you endured during your time as a nextdoor neighbor. First off i want to put out my sympathies to all of the families and the victims. The tragedy that could have been avoided. In what we dealt with, when we first moved there, we thought this could be a cool arts base that was across the way. That you know could be making cool, weird stuff and it didnt turn out to be that way. Why did you say it was a tragedy to be avoided . There was several reports from not only myself but other neighbors. We constantly called in as that place was a nuisance, that place was there is altercations, there was Police Presence on almost like a bi weekly basis. Did you think it is unsafe. Yes. This place is unsafe. When we first introduced ourselves over there, we went in to it and it was apparent from the beginning there was just piles of things everywhere. It was the dangerous space even just from the fact that second floor was empty. And the first floor was just chuck full of bol pianos and organs and vans and rvs and trailers. The moment you heard, you said that you just felt like you had been hit in the gut. It was horrible. It was our worse fears. It was just realized and far more horrific than we suspected. Navigating with light was precarious. I couldnt imagine being unfamiliar with the lay out, smoke, fire, chaos, fear of dying. Like i couldnt imagine being able to put all of those pieces together and get out of that alive. You are talking now and what would you like to see done . I think it could have been avoided and thats why im speaking out because we made calls, i cant tell you like once, twice, three times a week, sometimes three times on a night about Different Things happening over there. And just seeing nothing done about it and having this horrible event take place and just running through your head, is there something that you could have done more that could have like resulted in people being alive. Had they been evicted from that illegal residence none of this would have happened. This is not an attack on artists or art communities. There are people that run alternative venues like a proper club and legit where safety is taken as a consideration and that was not happening here. This wasnt a responsible group of people. This was a dangerous place that was there for three years and you know, it just the hard thing is that this was bound to happen. What charges those connected to the ghost ship warehouse could face, if any. All right. Donald trump heading back out on his thank you tour but first he is taking issue with an upgraded air force one. Plus, we will have a live update from the Alameda Countys sheriffs department. It will be cold. The coldest night in awhile. A freeze warning for the bay area and that doesnt mean you won see freezing temperatures in your backyard jd is working basically as a coroner in this capacity. Your department and also as the front people in terms of retrieval of evidence and bodies and it has been an arduous task. How much is left to go . The task is getting everybody out of there thankfully. It seems to have slowed down. We havent pulled out decedents recently and we are concentrating on a task of doing the notifications for all of the families. And jd, we heard more today about how desperate it was and an attempt by those inside to get out and in fact the sheriff saying that at least two people were clinging to one another. That is true. I spoke to the investigators that were working those particular cases and he confirmed that. He said the man was in a position where he was trying to shield the woman from what inevitably a horrible situation. Notification, that notification process has been talking to you and others, very difficult, something that the sheriff says he will never forget. One of the stories that we heard was that the parents of one of the individuals was actually texting back and forth with their loved one, before their loved one actually passed. Were there alot of those types of stories where there were victims of the fire that were able to communicate but they werent able to get out . Well, im only getting your question partially but i think you are asking about text messages. Yes. So that being the case, my partner Sergeant Ray Kelley did talk to a parent that received a text message probably soon after the fire started that said pretty tough things about how she felt she was going to die. And finally jd have you identified all of the 33, i guess is it still 33 on the identifications and the notification process. Have you gotten all 33 completed . Right. We have either identified or tentatively identified everybody in this incident except for one and that will probably have to do a Scientific Method to do identification via dental records or dna. That said, the notification process is going well. But you know we do have people that live out of the area so to make contact and make sure that we get it done right. It is our task at this point. We know that you have a lot of work to still be done. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Thank you for having me. One of the things the investigators are talking about is the possibility of rain as they continue the work. Definitely. The rain is coming. Not before the cold gets here. It is a freeze warning for parts of the napa valley. Out there towards fairfield and pardon me, near fairfield and vacaville. Out towards davis and sacramento. It is a freeze warning but we will have freezing temperatures. Coldest night in a long time and it will be cold, really right up until noon tomorrow. I dont think it gets that warm. Just in the upper 40s and low 50s. It is a cool day. Look at the jet stream. Im well out the date line and i just want to show you all going on out there and all of that, 2000 miles where the moisture is coming our way and so as we go into the next few days and in the next week, we have a wet weather pattern. We will get rabbin here, not until tomorrow night and thursday. The main event day will be thursday and friday morning. But rain is coming. Probably for the week. Get ready for the cold. We got it. Cloud cover and you see the clouds pushing their way in. Theres the winds coming out the north and they are more northeast tomorrow and they will die down tonight and that makes it cold. Look at the temperatures currently. 52 in livermore. That is maximum heating for the day. Beautiful outside. Clear nights. Flags are hanging downtown. Not that windy and, therefore, it is going to be cold. Thats why it is a freeze warning in effect. It is on the fringe of the bay area. Pet tal louma and clayton, they will have plenty of cold. Freeze warning for the bay area. An when i come back we will talk about the forecast and the timing on the rain which is just around the corner. Thank you. And accused burglar targets a home in the middle of the afternoon and caught in the act. We will tell you about the action that the homeowner took that has police investigating. A man in vallejo shot and killed a person that broke in his home. The man called 911 about 4 30 yesterday afternoon to report that someone had kicked in front door and was inside. The man armed himself and with a handgun and shot the intruder. The intruder was taken to the hospital where he died. Police investigating the incident. The Contra Costa County District Attorney has been hit with a huge fine. Mark peterson fined 45,000 for illegally spending tens of thousands of dollars from his politically campaign. He says he was humbled and embarrassed and apologize for my errors. Donald trump makes another stop on his thank you tour heading through North Carolina to meet with voters but before leaving mr. Trump met with another slew of potentially hires and he blasted Airline Manufacturer boeing. I think boeing is doing a little bit of a number. Making himself a stop in trump tower, the president elect taking issue with boeing. Criticizing the american companys plan to charge what he said was 4 billion for a new air force one boeing saying in part we are under contract for 170 milliondollars to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the president of the United States. While trading jabs over the jet, another stream of visitors met with the president elect today. Including former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and exxon mobile Ceo Rex Tillerson whose name is the latest to be floated as a possible pick for the future secretary of state. Vice president mike pence meeting with leaders on capitol hill. I had the pleasure of having the Vice President elect at the lunch. I believe i am safe in saying he tends to come to our lunches periodically. Current Vice President joe biden was on the hill after telling reporters last night that he is looking at a possible president ial run in 2020. Today he hedged although did not rule it out all together. It is going to be a good year in 18. What about the 2020 business again . I dont know about 2020. Later in the week mr. Trump heads to michigan to continue his thank you tour where a statewide recount is under way. Prompted by former green Party President jill stein. In washington, joe wallman. Fox news. High schoolers are slipping in math and reading and science scores are flat. The test is given to 15year olds around the world. U. S. Government researchers say the u. S. Ranked 35th in math. 15th in reading and 18th in science for 2015. Singapore was highest in all three areas. Other countries that outscored the u. S. Include canada, ireland, and a tone ya. The Research Shows that education will be a challenge for the new administration. Most heart breaking part of the oakland fire learning about the victims. The stories just identified by the Alameda Countys sheriffs department. We will speak to Michael Cardoza about the appearance of Derick Almena and if he could be charged in connection with the oakland warehouse fire. Alex savage has memories of victims. One victim is alex cason. The film maker lived and worked in oakland. Just an hour before that deadly fire broke out cason posted this video on instagram. It appears to be from inside the boast ship collective where the electronic music concert was going on. We heard from an oakland woman that hired him to shoot a documentary on her book of the black churches in the bay area. Martha taylor remembers his attention to detail. He was cognizant of the lighting, the sound and i said wow, i have a real artist here. Fittingly enough this is caused ease my pain performed by the artist name charlie pallor one of the musicians kill. His real name was ben reynolds, the 32yearold a native of upstate new york that performed at local bars and dance venues. 34yearold edwin lapin lived in oakland and from Washington State and interned for a Record Company and one of the latest victims to be identified is 28 yearold michael danemeyer. A music producer and was at the concert friday night and one of the People Killed in the fire has been identified as jennifer keyma tonume she was a music manager and a nail artist and had reportedly gone to the warehouse friday night to set up an under ground nail bar for party goers. And last night hundreds of people attended a candlelight vigil at lake merritt to honor them. Congresswoman barbara lee gathered there and people stood and listened to each other on an open mike and some took to the microphone to blame it on lack of Affordable Housing but most of the speakers shared memories of loved ones and offered their condolences. I live so close that hearing the helicopters and the fire and smelling the smokeis what we experienced. I am only 15 but i want them to know that i care. It is on everybodys mind and everyone is talking about it. And i like we have this forum to just share in that. To be together during this time. What comes out of this is a resolve to be a stronger human being to watch out for each other and to work closer with the city. And that musician that you saw right there, he lost friends in the fire. He actually created something that included photographs that he brought to the vigil and he created a sound track in which all of the victims names are cited. Here is Michael Cardoza. Derick almena is the man at the center of investigation and Nancy Omalley the District Attorney is launching a criminal investigation on this that could result in charges. What is your take on the possibility of charges of what we know. I can almost guarantee you they will bring a seconddegree murder charge against him. This case is getting tremendous publicity. People are very upset. You have seen the condition of the building and a man profiting from that. You had a owner that let this go on that didnt pay much attention to the building and it falls to the definition of seconddegree murder. Seconddegree murder sounds like it would require some sort of planning that he wanted this to happen. No you are talking about intent and you dont need that. If you do something that is foreseeable where danger is possible and i take a gun and i shoot into the building. And go i didnt mean to kill anybody but i did. That is a dangerous act and leaving this building the way it was with the Electrical Condition and the code violations, you just knew that something was going to happen and death was certainly foreseeable. Derick almena was on the today show this morning and talked about his feelings about this. Lets take a listen to what he said. Im a proud man. I am not going to answer questions on this level. Are you worried that you will be charged. I would rather be trampled by the parents. I would rather let them tear my flesh than answer these ridiculous questions. I am so sorry. I am not going to answer the questions. Answer questions about culpability and whether he thought he was responsible in any way. Investigators are going to ask the same questions. Ill tell you what. Im sure they are but one thing Derick Almena should be aware of is the 5th amendment, the right to remain silent. He should not be talking to them. When he does things like that and appear on the show and talks to tv reporters im telling you, he is doing himself no good but i can tell you one thing, ted. One of the thing that jumps in my mind with the publicity this case is coming. Change the venue. How can you try this case against him or anyone else here in Alameda County. You can do it. This case will be tried in los angeles, i would bet. We are skipping ahead because there is no charges. We are. What about a civil case, do you anticipate that the owner of the building will be hit with a civil case . Absolutely and im sure there are attorneys if any of the families are doing asset searches on the owner of the building. The People Living there knew, presumably that what it was and they agreed to live there. It doesnt make any difference. That they agreed to it. They agreed to living in a place. They dont know that i am taking a risk or assuming the risk, that wont work. There will be lawsuits if there is enough money. As i said the other day to you, the insurance is not going to cover this. They are going to back away and say we didnt insure it for residential. So they will get out of it and that leaves the owner of the building and he has to have assets because an attorney is not going to take the case and go gee we won and there is no money at the end for my clients. Weeks and days how long if charges are going to be filed do you anticipate it. The next 60 days. Michael cardoza welcome. Donations have been pouring in from all around the bay area. And the country for those fire victims. The city and the red cross have set up a web page on you caring dot com where people can donate. Here at the site we are experiencing overwhelming amount of support and people bringing food and asking how they can donate financially and it is overwhelming here and so it is set up online to where you can make those donations. We will have more on the excuse me. The you caring relief fund that i mentioned have received 429 thousand dollars in donations and another fun where the oakland as and raiders and the Golden State Warriors have joined forces to make 50,000 each. I checked that fund and it is at 390,000. We will have more coverage of this deadly warehouse fire throughout the the evening and you can get the latest updates on kutv. Com and facebook and twitter. The Supreme Court delivers a major blow to tech giant apple. As i mentioned, a freeze warning for a small part of the bay area but it will be cold in your backyard. One of the coldest nights of the year and we got the rain to talk about. See you back here after the break. This portion of fox 2 news brought to you by your chevrolet dealers. Apple and samsung have been throwing lawsuits against each other in different countries. Samsung paid last december 548 milliondollars to apple on this case and samsung says we dont owe them 399 because the patents were for profits paid on the entire device. That is what came out. The ruling was that it was not necessarily that samsung was infringing and earning its profits on simply the design but that they were ultimately multiple things and multi designs and components and where apple should should not be entitled to all of the profits. Saying that design selections contributed marginally to the product that has thousands of features. Obviously apple is not happy about todays ruling and i want to put up on the screen a statement saying it hopes that lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing is not right and saying our case is about samsungs blatant copying of idea and it was not disputed. The justices not saying that samsung did not steal ideas from apple. The interesting thing is that because samsung is a provider for apple technology, they created the chip in the iphone and have been a provider and they signed a deal in may to get oed displays for the new iphone 8 coming out next year. There are partners this entire time even though they are fighting it out. It is not going to be the end of either one of the companies. Does the top two manufacturers in the world, according to a survey and this is not going to end. This will go back to the lower courts to decide and the Supreme Court refused to tell the lower court specifically how to decide how damages will be awarded. So this could spawn all kinds of litigation. One of the interesting things that came out of samsungs arguments, they said you wouldnt take away all of the profits from a car maker who is copying the designs of a cup holder from another car manufacturer. And that kind of makes sense. Here is the interesting thing. I read the steve jobs biography and bill gates is famous for saying that the original design of the mac design was stolen from xerox and they had a conversation where bill said to steve, we robbed the same house at the same time. Technology and design, everybody borrows from each other and sometimes people get mad. Steve was famous for getting mad at bill gates for stealing his design so this is something for the ages. We will continue to cases like this over and over. The battle continues. Thank you, ryan. Appreciate it. Lets go to bill martin. We were talking about rain. It will be significant. It is. We will see significant rain and snow in the mountains and not just as we head into thursday and friday but beyond that and in the weekend and beyond that. We got a nice little round of rain. It is almost winter. And it is been productive over 130 of rainfall average for many. Over that in snow accumulations in the mountains and what you see right there, more on the way, thats the system im tracking and it has everything. It has a little bit first of all it has advantage of having pretty cold air so the dynamics will produce snow at lower snow levels and you see a lower level of clouds from the south. Thats a little bit warmer moisture and combining with the cold and it can be explosive combination for accumulations. Not expecting flooding but we are expecting over two or three inches of rain over the next 48 to 72 hours. Thats good. The clouds out there right now are just that. Just kind of high clouds lingering around. Tomorrow morning when you get going. We are looking at valley fog. Certainly a little bit and as we mentioned very cold overnight. It is a freeze warning for parts of the napa valley. Really just the edge. Out there by vacaville and fairfield. It doesnt take much. And here is the thing. You know on the estuary. I dont see flags but you see how the waters are smooth. Not a lot of wind and that is conducive to the bay area freeze warning. You can see the areas here touching to napa and this will bleed to vallejo and picks up there and out towards antioch and frost and freeze and patchy fog. And overnight lows in some areas could easily get down to below freezing. And it will be patchy frost. Here is the computer model. Tomorrow is about, we talked about it increasing clouds and the rain starts tomorrow evening. And now we are into your morning commute. Thursday morning. And now we are into your thursday afternoon commute. Mountain travel if you think about going skiing, snow levels will be down to 5000 feet and friday wet on the roadways and you get the idea. There is more after that towards the week. Overnight low. Coldest nights we have seen all season and daytime highs not much warmer. Mid50s at best. 54 in morgan hill and 55 in gilroy and here is the fiveday forecast. Here is the evening showers. Sweet spot for this is wednesday night late into thursday. Lunchtime, sweet spot meaning the most rain and the thursday morning commute not that great. Fridays morning commute okay. And there might be a few showers. It is right in here. Can you see my finger . Thursday is the bullseye and as we get to sunday, a chance for a few more showers. Yeah, that is what we need. Almost winter and it is acting like it. And it is just going to be a productive and the mountains will get two or three feet of snow probably by sunday or monday. Awesome. Thanks, bill. All right. Coming up next. Pushing for change. Authorities talking about the security upgrades to better protect inmates and employees at the Santa Clara County jail. Especially after that prison escape. A proposal to add cameras at the santa clara jail. This is a warning for everybody in the facility that there are eyes everywhere in that facility and our highest obligation is to make sure that people are safe. County Officials Say building a new jail will take at least four years so some of the supervisors felt it was in the best interest to go ahead and add the cameras and surveillance cameras will cost 300,000. The supervisors began a step to protect undocument the immigrants. Authorities wants the county to pay for the lawyers. The boarded asked backers to look at ways to fun the program. President elect donald trump has prompted to crack on this and proposals say that the county should not use public funds to pay for it. Sf ois the home for the first known airport therapy pig. Yep. This is lilu. She made her debut yesterday. Part of the wag brigade. These are certified by the sp c aanimal assistance program. Look at her tutu. Could have used one of those in chicago this weekend. Where was she when my flag was delayed and the mess over the weekend. Very cute. Nice idea. Remembering pearl harbor. 75 years later. Looking back on history as i mentioned marked 75 years and this year is the first that a japanese leader will visit the site of the attack. Stay with us. The four on two will be right back. Here in the bay area we love to talk about our area. Talking bay area weather, listen to the people who know what they are talking about. The bay areas weather authority. Fox 2 news. In an hour in San Francisco. District attorney George Gascon will discuss the issue of police use of force. Members that attended last weeks vigil marking the first Year Anniversary of mario woods. Woods mother has called on the d. A. To charge the five San Francisco Police Officers involved in the killing of her son. Todays meeting starts at 6 00 p. M. At the seiu building on rhode island street in San Francisco. The United States remembering one of the most deadly attacks on u. S. Soil. Dan springer shows us how the country is remembering those lost in pearl harbor 75 years after the attack. Wednesday december 7th marks 75 years since the attack on pearl harbor. The event that plunged the United States into world war ii. The surprise attack was attempt by the Japanese Military to neutralize the pacific killing more than 2300 american soldiers and sailors and wounding an additional one thousand. Those that were there remember it vividly. We could see the airplanes flying and bombing. And the black smoke. And the black smoke and the fires. And the women came screaming out of her twostory house and she says look and i looked down and we were on a hill. And there was smoke. You could see the smoke. A survivor of u. S. Arizona recounts the horror. 80 of those aboard perished during the attack. Parts of the whole thing. [ crying ] if i do talk about it, i cant sleep. We burned all over. They got hoops for the beds with the blankets. Japanese Prime Minister plans to visit. I will visit pearl harbor and the u. S. Arizona to pray for the dead. Never again should we repeat this. A week of events will wrap up including a replaying andceremony at the u. S. Arizona. Fox 2 news at five starts now. The fire burns at 45degree angle for the most part and you can definitely see a distinctive 45degree angle on the back wall in the area where the refrigerator was being stored. A possible cause of that horrific warehouse fire in oakland that killed 36 people. A story about how those trapped inside tried to protect each other and their final moments. The male had his arm underneath the female as if they were hugging. Good evening. Im heather hays in tonight for julie. And im frank somerville. Authorities as you just heard released new information on the deadly information in the investigation saying that they have found a possible point of origin for the fire. Investigators think it may have started in a refrigerator in the back of the building. There are reports that refrigerator had constantly been shorting out because of an overload unit. The death toll is 36 and 26 have been positively identified. 90 of the building have been searched and authorities expect to be finished tonight searching it and they dont think they will find anymore bodies. Authorities released the names of more of those victims and among them, 35 yearold alec cason. A filmmaker that lived and worked in oakland and 32year old ben reynolds and ben la peen was 34 years