mr. almena. obviously there were some conditions in that building that may have led to a dangerous situation and led to what happened there. >> i laid my body down there every night. we laid our bodies down there. we put our children to bed there every night. we made music. we've created art. we opened our home. what became our home. it didn't start off as our home. it started off as an initial dream, an idea that we would would host. everything from at-risk youth to the gay community. to artists that couldn't perform anywhere. to performance art and alternative arts. and eventually, when you can't pay your rent because your dream is bigger than your pocketbook, when the need for housing and the need for people to be able to sit down and be warm and make food and take a shower and take so we created something together. you know. this stopped being me, this wasn't about me. i signed a lease. and i got a building that was to city standard, supposedly. i was lured into something that i had to consta

mr. almena -- >> i'm so sorry. i'm incredibly sorry. what do you want me to say? i'm not going to answer these questions. >> then we will call this -- >> i just want to say that i am sorry. >> then we'll end the interview there, mr. almena. >> soul accountable, yet to hold my soul accountable for believing in something. >> reporter: the manager of this place they called ghost ship. where was he the night of the fire? they decided to stay in a hotel because of concerns about that, the electronic dance party getting too loud for the children. back to you, brianna. >> all right, paul vercammen, thank you so much for that report. >>> as the recovery operations wind down, the focus is shifting to the investigation. i want to bring in matthew horace, special agent in charge of a national response team for the atf. matthew, this is the kind of incident, maybe not specifically this one, but somewhat similar, that it was your job to investigate at the atf. what's the first thing that investigators are doing when they get to the scene of this kind of tragedy and here in the

mr. almena -- >> i'm incredibly sorry. i'm not going to answer these questions. >> then we will call this -- >> i'm just going to say that i am sorry. >> then we'll end the interview there. >> if you have to hold my soul accountable for believing in something. >> we appreciate your time this morning. >> and moving in other artists and other beautiful people that also believed with me. >> and we will continue to follow this story in its developments. mr. almena, thanks for your time. >> now to politics, moving on to other stories today. president-elect trump is set to meet with more cabinets. the question out there is vice president joe biden already thinking about 2020? nbc kristen welker is at trump tower with more. kristin, good morning. >> good morning to you. president-elect donald trump is set to meet with secretary of state henry kissinger. it comes on the heels of there trump's controversial phone call with taiwan. >> president-elect donald trump out to dinner with his family last night. poised to make more cabinet

mr. almena -- >> i'm so sorry. i'm incredibly sorry. i don't know what you want me to say.not going to answer these questions -- >> then we'll call this -- >> i'm just going to say i'm sorry. >> how did the people get trapped? how did the horror commence? was the fire old wood? what led to the fire being such a rapid buildup? >> reporter: well, there's so much flammable material inside there. the staircase was a makeshift staircase made out of pallets. there's only a few exits in there. two exits. a lot of people were on that second floor, so they were trapped up there. they have isolated where they believed the fire had started to that back wall. so what they think happens is the fire starts in the first floor, spreads to the second floor, and it's in the roof, and the roof collapses on the people that are inside there, but i spoke to somebody with the sheriff's department this morning, who said that basically, you take two inhalations of air that is so ultra-heated inside there, and probably everybody passed out well before they even knew what was happening. so most of th