Families weep as trial opens after deadly warehouse fire

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — For two hours, victims' families wept and clutched one another Tuesday while a prosecutor opened a criminal trial by showing photos of and methodically naming each of the 36 partygoers who died in a Northern California warehouse fire.

Alameda County deputy district attorney Casey Bates then recounted for jurors the harrowing tales of two survivors who barely escaped the fast-moving fire and choking smoke while panic and indecision seized most of the victims attending an unpermitted music concert in an illegally converted Oakland warehouse.

The operators of the warehouse, Derick Almena and Max Harris, have been in jail since they were each charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter after the December 2016 inferno.

Bates said prosecutors charged the men because they illegally converted a warehouse zoned only for industrial use into a residence and entertainment venue crammed "floor to ceiling with unconventional, flammable materials."

Bates said the two failed to provide adequate safety equipment, exits and signage. No one heard the signal fire alarm go off that night, Bates said, giving the partygoers no notice a fire had broken out. The warehouse also lacked sprinklers to slow the fast-moving fire and give them time to escape.

"They died because they had no notice, no time and no exits," Bates said.

He finished by showing jurors text messages sent from two victims moments before they perished.

"I'm going to die now," Nicole Siegrest wrote her mother.

"I love you," Nicholas Walrath wrote his girlfriend. "Fire."

Lawyers for Almena and Harris were scheduled to deliver their opening statements Tuesday afternoon.

Almena, 49, is charged with illegally converting the industrial building into an unlicensed entertainment venue and artist...