Remembering the victims of a tragic fire
December 6, 2002
Ten-year-old arson remains unsolved
Ten years ago today, SIUC suffered one of its greatest tragedies when five students died in a fire at the Pyramids apartment complex.
When firefighters and police officers arrived, the second and third stories of the apartment building were engulfed in flames and thick smoke, according to police at the time. Most of the residents managed to evacuate the building while others leaped from the third floor to escape the fire.
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After the fire was extinguished, four students were found to have died:Cheng Teck Wong, 23, a senior in electrical engineering from Malaysia; Ronald A. Moy, 23, a senior in economics from Chicago; Kimioko Ajioka, 25, a senior in marketing from Japan; Lai Hung Tam, 23, a senior in marketing from Hong Kong. Mazlina Abdul Wahid, 28, a freshman in vocational education studies from Malaysia, later died from injuries suffered in the fire.
Nine of the residents were hospitalized, most for smoke inhalation or injuries sustained in jumping from the building. The fire, labeled as arson, remains unsolved today.
Carbondale Police Sgt. Paul Echols, who was a crime scene specialist at the time of the fire, said it was traumatic for officers. He recalled that when investigators went into the building after the fire was put out, they found the bodies of a couple with the young man shielding his girlfriend.
Echols said he was called in from home and arrived a little after 2 a.m. He said that when he arrived officers and rescue personnel were assisting the people who had been injured in the fire, including many who had jumped from third story windows onto a concrete slab on one side of the building.
He said there was a lot of heroism that night as firefighters and police officers went into the building to rescue people.
With more than 30 residents left homeless because of the fire, the community responded to the tragedy with an abundance of generosity.
“There was a great outpouring of assistance for the victims of the fire,” said James Quisenberry, who was director of international programs and services at the time.
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Bob Gray, chaplain for the Carbondale and SIUC police departments and senior pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church, helped organize the relief effort and his church became a storehouse for donated items.
“We had a tremendous outpouring from the community and churches and students,” Gray said.
The community donated food, clothing, personal care items and more than $10,000 cash to help those displaced by the fire. He said the amount of goods donated was amazing and included about 2,600 pairs of blue jeans.
James Tweedy, who was vice president for administration at the time, said people at the University were devastated.
“It was a very sad time at the University,” he said.
Tweedy said he was impressed by the way students and other members of the University came together to provide support to fellow students and their families.
Students worked for more than two years to find a way to commemorate those who lost their lives. In 1994, a stone monument in honor of the five students who died was placed near the Campus Lake Boat Dock overlooking the lake. A tree was also planted nearby.
Echols said that arson was determined to be the cause of the fire and that the case is still considered open. After this many years, though, information has been reduced to a trickle. But, he said, the police department still investigates leads. He said there is a suspect, but the suspect is not currently in the area.
Echols said it is always frustrating when a case cannot be brought to a close.
“We certainly hope that some day we’ll be able to charge a person for that,” Echols said. “We have not given up.”
Reporter Phil Beckman can be reached at
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