PITTSBURGH — One of the missing after a warehouse fire killed 36 people in Oakland, California on Friday grew up in Pittsburgh.
Nick Walrath, 31, graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 2003 and was living in Oakland.
He texted his girlfriend, Alexis Abrams-Bourke, from inside the burning structure, saying there was a fire and that he loved her.
Abrams-Bourke said Monday that Walrath was among the missing. She spoke between sobs as she described him as a wonderful person who was open and vulnerable and goofy and generous.
"I feel like my future has been ripped from me," she said.
The two moved together from New York City several years ago after Walrath got a job as a clerk for the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He spent a year working as a judicial law clerk for the federal district court in San Francisco, and recently was hired as an attorney with the San Francisco law firm Durie Tangri.
But his ultimate goal was to work for the American Civil Liberties Union, according to Abrams-Bourke.
Helping people is what drove him.
"He could really step outside of himself and care and listen to other people and feel their struggles, and want to help," Abrams-Bourke said. "Not everyone is equipped to help in that way, and he knew he was, you know, and that was his gift."
District Judge Jon Tigar said in a statement that Walrath was an "exceptional" law clerk in his chambers.
"Nick brought his brilliant intellect, cogent writing skills, curiosity and relentless work ethic to everything he did," Tigar wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.