EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) Two Emporia State University students from China who died in a fire were remembered as kind and generous people with a thirst for education.
Nearly 400 people attended a memorial Thursday night for 23-year-old Yawei Fan and 22-year-old Zheng Lin. They died Oct. 20 when items on the grate of a floor furnace ignited in their duplex.
Fan was a sophomore studying chemistry. Lin was working toward a master’s degree in English.
The university’s physics and chemistry student organizations plan a memorial project that will train student volunteers to inspect student housing for fire safety. They also are raising funds to buy and distribute smoke detectors to Emporia State students living in off-campus housing.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the students’ families from China attended the memorial.