Campus & community, People, Campus news

Campus mourns five killed in Oakland warehouse fire

By Kathleen Maclay

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The official death toll from Oakland’s warehouse fire has been updated to include two UC Berkeley students, two recent graduates and a community volunteer at the campus radio station.

David Cline, Jennifer Morris, Griffin Madden, Vanessa Plotkin

Clockwise from top left: David Cline, Jennifer Morris, Vanessa Plotkin and Griffin Madden.

The Berkeley campus is grieving the losses and is mourning along with the families, wide circles of friends, coworkers and others who knew the young people in and out of the classroom, and in the Bay Area arts community.

Based on information provided by the Alameda County coroner’s office, the Friday night fire that engulfed the Ghost Ship warehouse in the Fruitvale neighborhood during an electronic music show claimed the lives of these members of the UC Berkeley community:

Vanessa Plotkin , 21, a junior from Lakewood in Southern California who was majoring in sociology and volunteering at the campus radio station, KALX.

Jennifer Morris, a 20-year-old junior and Foster City resident who was majoring in media studies. Previously, she studied at UC Santa Cruz. Morris had joined KALX as a volunteer this semester.

Chelsea Dolan

Chelsea Dolan, who was a volunteer DJ at KALX

Griffin Sean Madden, 23, an alumnus who graduated in May 2015 with degrees in philosophy and Slavic language and literature. Madden was an employee at Cal Performances at the time of his death.

David Cline , 24, of Oakland, who graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2015 with degrees in computer science and cognitive science.

Chelsea Dolan, 33, who had been serving as a community volunteer DJ at KALX.

A vigil will be held at Zellerbach Hall on campus Thursday at noon. More information can be found in a message from the chancellor posted on Berkeley News .

On Sunday, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a message about the fire to the community.