Nightclub victims' kin: Oakland fire families face long road

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Authorities investigating the California warehouse party fire that killed 36 people have said they are considering a criminal case — even murder charges.

[...] as relatives learned after a nightclub fire killed 100 people in Rhode Island, any prosecution would be a long and complicated road that may not end with a feeling of justice.

In Oakland, investigators said this week that they were looking at a refrigerator and other electrical appliances as possible causes in the Friday night fire in the warehouse packed with wooden structures, where electricity was provided by cords that snaked through the space.

In both, the operators were accused of ignoring safety standards, such as providing adequate fire exits.

A nearly 10-month grand jury investigation resulted in involuntary manslaughter charges for three people: the club's owners, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, and the man who set off the pyrotechnics, Great White tour manager Daniel Biechele.

To get to a murder charge, you have to show some level of criminal intent or malicious conduct, such as someone intentionally setting the fire, he said.

In Rhode Island, the criminal case took more three years, and the civil cases against dozens of people and companies took six.