Official: Refrigerator potential source of deadly fire
OAKLAND, Calif. — Investigators said Tuesday a warehouse fire in Oakland that killed 36 people did not appear to have been set intentionally and may have been caused by a refrigerator or other electrical appliance.
Details about a possible cause emerged as fire crews nearly completed their search for bodies in the most lethal building fire in the U.S. in more than a decade. The death toll remained at 36 and was not expected to go higher.
Tearful family members visited the scene and exchanged hugs hours after the founder of the arts collective that used the warehouse stood near the gutted building and said he was “incredibly sorry.”
“Everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together,” Derick Ion Almena told the “Today Show” on NBC.