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October 3, 2024 Login
Features

Serial arsonists and mystery rooms: Unraveling BHS’ secrets

Martin Wagner
By Carina Thomas, October 20th, 2023

As an institution established in 1800, over two centuries ago, Berkeley High School certainly has a rich and interesting history. Because of this, there is no doubt that new and old members of the BHS community would want to know more about the school’s mysterious aspects, all the way down to its physical structures. 

“The C Building has a mystery room, G has a few, H has at least one,” said Moana Comitre-Rojas. “Definitely some doors back there I ain’t seen behind before,” added Leo Gillum-Brown, also a BHS senior. 

From beneath the Jacket Stadium bleachers to mystery ladders inside Berkeley High’s buildings, the historical site remains a place for students to explore and investigate.

Berkeley High’s campus currently includes the buildings A, C, D, G, H, and J. The no-longer existing B Building stands out due to the haunting event that led to its destruction in April of 2000. 

“The B Building got set on fire,” says Sena Nagaoka, a current BHS senior. The B Building stood on what is now the school’s campus green. Administrative offices, the school library, and many classrooms were burned down and destroyed–luckily, nobody was injured in the event.

Many believe the fire to be an act of arson because from 1999 to 2000, there was 24 fires on  BHS’s campus, from trash can fires to burned English textbooks, suggesting that BHS  was being tormented by arsonists. Three students were caught setting fires that year.

The reign of fires came to an end following the B Building