Knife Party VJ Jon Bernbaum Dies In US Warehouse Party Fire

Australian electronic act Knife Party have confirmed that their US-based VJ Jonathan Bernbaum was one of the victims of a tragic fire at the GhostShip Warehouse party in Oakland over the weekend.

In his career as a visual artist, Bernbaum worked for many years in the EDM sector, including extensively with Rob Swire‘s Knife Party project.

Swire took to Twitter last night to confirm that Bernbaum had been working on the visual effects the night of the warehouse party, and was killed in the blaze.

“If you’ve seen a Knife Party show in the last 3/4 years, there’s a 99% chance you were watching Jon’s visuals and know how talented he was,” Swire wrote.

“Don’t know what else to say. The electronic music scene is shittier today without Jon behind the visuals.” Here’s his full series of tweets:

ABC News USA reported today that the death toll from the fire has now risen to 36, of which 33 bodies have been positively identified.

Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed this morning said that 75 per cent of the building has been searched, and Alameda County Sherriff Gregory Ahren said authorities are not expecting the death toll to rise further. The cause of the fire is not yet known, and investigators are still trying to determine whether there was any criminal liability.

A number of other artists and co-workers of Bernbaum have also since expressed their condolences on social media, which can be seen below.

Swire will perform with his former trio Pendulum for a one off show at Origin NYE 2016 in Perth this year.