Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said Tuesday there are no city records showing her department receiving concerns about the building, which former residents, neighbors and others say was the subject of numerous calls to 911.
"We do not inspect buildings, we inspect businesses," Reed said during a press conference on Dec. 13.
The business license application is only the first step in opening a commercial enterprise.
If Ng had wanted to operate a legitimate business at the warehouse, either she or her tenants would have also needed to file paperwork for a Fire Department permit, which would have automatically notified the fire prevention bureau for an inspection.
Oakland spokeswoman Karen Boyd said the city is looking for ways to better coordinate the processes, the East Bay Times reported Thursday.
The deadliest structure fire in the U.S. in more than a decade broke out during a Dec. 2 late-night dance party in the cluttered warehouse. The building had been converted to art studios and illegal living spaces, and former denizens said it was a death trap of piled wood, furniture, snaking electrical cords and only two exits
Investigators said that they still haven't determined what started the fire, though they say it didn't appear to be intentionally set. Instead, investigators have been focusing on electrical appliances plugged into the rear of the building where the fire started.
The electrical system is still part of the analysis of what sparked the fire, said Jill Snyder, the special agent in charge with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
A civil grand jury report in 2014 said 4,000 out of 11,000 buildings in Oakland were going without the yearly inspections, and concluded the city's website inaccurately implied all commercial buildings received annual inspections.
The department agreed with the finding. It said an annual inspection for each commercial business was a goal, but emergency responses and staffing made that more difficult.