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Vigil Remembers USC Alum, Artist Killed In Oakland Warehouse Fire

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Outside USC's School of Cinematic Arts, a circle of friends lit candles and shared their memories of Jonathan Bernbaum.

They heard from his family Monday that he died in the Oakland warehouse fire over the weekend.

"It's kind of hard to process," Tony Lund said.

"I don't think I appreciated the dude enough you know," said Sia Abderezai

Bernbaum graduated from the film school in 2008 and lived in L.A. for a few more years before moving to Oakland. He made and kept dozens of friends at USC.

"I was not the most talkative person, and he was a very inclusive welcoming person, so he was the guy that was the bridge to be friends with other people," friend and former USC classmate Crystal Page said.

"This guy had this beautiful arrogance to him, and he would do things because he loved to do them," Abderezai  said.

As part of the vigil, his friends displayed his visual art and laser light shows from the past six years.

His friends say he became internationally known.

"He was playing shows in Tokyo, he was playing the Woodstock of electronic dance music, He was hanging out with these big-ticket dance artists," Abderezai said.

And he would play small shows just because he loved it. His friends say that's likely what he was doing at the Ghost Ship warehouse the night of the fire.

DONATE: Click Here To Help The Victims And Their Families

"He would have been part of the tech crew, that would have put him on the second floor with a lot of the electrical equipment," Lund said.

Lund remembered that Bernbaum would have made him laugh.

"I think he would have been joking about how lame this is, and where's the music and why the projector isn't brighter."

"We can't bring him back, but at least we can have some monument of his memory and his legacy," Lund said.

FULL COVERAGE:  Deadly Oakland Warehouse Fire

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