You never know which one of us could have been in that fire, Saborio, vice president of the International Student Council, said. It is something like this that makes us think of our own mortality.

Each of the victims had a life and a future. We cannot forget, or allow others to forget, or we will deny them of that future.

About 30 students gathered Saturday at The Pyramids fire memorial at Campus Lake for the five-year anniversary of the deaths of five international students who died in one of Carbondale’s worst fire tragedies.

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The early morning fire occurred on Dec. 6, 1992, at The Pyramids apartments, 504 S. Rawlings St., which now houses Ambassador Hall. Some of the students who survived the fire jumped from second- and third-floor windows to escape the flames. The fire was ruled an arson, and the case has not been solved.

The purpose of this service is to bring us together today to remember those people who lost their lives and ensure that a similar tragedy never happens again, Wan Kamal Wan Napi, International Student Council president, said.

Wan Napi and the students gathered near the monument, erected in 1994, in hopes of beginning an annual memorial service.

The monument, paid for by the ISC, Undergraduate Student Government, Graduate and Professional Student Council and some SIUC administrators, bears the names of the five students killed in the fire.

The students killed in the fire were Kimioko Ajioka, 25, a senior in marketing from Osaka, Japan; Ronald Moy, 23, a senior in economics from Chicago; Lai Hung Tam, 23, a senior in marketing from Kowloon, Hong Kong; Mazlina Abdul Wahid, 28, a freshman in vocational education studies from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia; and Cheng Teck Wong, 23, a senior in electrical engineering from Johor, Malaysia.

Wan Napi said ISC is drafting a proposal suggesting the University organize an annual memorial service for the victims. The bill will be submitted USG for a vote by the student senate, Wan Napi said.

Wan Napi said most of the students in attendance at the service were not at SIUC at the time of the fire, so it was important to let them know what happened.

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This service is not only to remember the students who died in the fire but to remind the international student community of the tragedy, he said.

Wan Napi is optimistic that through the efforts of the police and the other government agencies working on the case, that the case can be solved. Police announced Thursday that they have a suspect. No immediate arrests are expected to be made.

Satoko Mitobe, a graduate student in educational psychology, was attending SIUC at the time of the fire but was living in a different dorm.

I did not know any of the victims personally, Mitobe said. But I think that it could have happened to me, so this event was important to remember.