One of the two men charged with involuntary manslaughter in Oakland's Ghost Ship warehouse fire last December says the building's owner shares responsibility for the 36 deaths in the blaze.
Derick Almena said in a jailhouse interview airing on KTVU Monday night that he told owner Chor Ng he planned to use the Oakland warehouse as an arts space and community center and that she knew people would be coming in and out.
Almena said he thought it would be the building owner's responsibility to inform the city that artists would be occupying it, but that city officials never inspected the cluttered warehouse.
"They definitely rented me something that they knew was unsafe. They definitely did," he said.
Attorneys for Ng have denied she knew people lived in the warehouse. Keith Bremer, an attorney for Ng, declined to comment.