OAKLAND, Calif. — Investigators said Tuesday that the 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.
The death toll remained at 36.
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.
Advertisement
Almena said he signed a lease for the building that ‘‘was to city standards supposedly.’’
A refrigerator was a potential source of the fire, said Jill Snyder, special agent in charge of the San Francisco office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Snyder said investigators were looking at ‘‘anything electrical’’ on the first floor of the warehouse near the origin of the blaze.