Victor Kwatemba on the left and Philemon Abayo on the right
LYNCHBURG —
On the last day of their lives, Philemon Onyango, 21, and Victor Kwatemba, 22, were happy. This is something their friends will always remember.
“We went to school for graduation,” Victor Wanjohi, a friend of both men, recalled of their final day together. “We spent time at the dining hall, joking. We had a good time. We were so happy.”
Onyango and Kwatemba, who roomed together in a basement apartment on Valleydale Drive, were both natives of Kenya who had immigrated to Lynchburg to attend college.
Kwatemba had only just arrived this year, enrolling in Liberty University for the spring semester as a computer engineering major.
Onyango had started out as an LU student in 2009, majoring in sports management, but was not currently enrolled at the school. His friends said he had begun attending National College.
On Saturday, graduation day at LU, the two joined in celebrating their friends who had earned their diplomas, staying up late into the night, cracking jokes and talking about the future.
Kwatemba was excited about continuing his studies and looking forward to starting a new on-campus job the following week. Onyango was beginning to think about marriage and family. He spoke of hoping to be able to get back home for a visit sometime this year. It had been a long time since he had seen his mother.
Just a few hours after that celebration, in the dark, pre-dawn hours Sunday morning, a fire broke out at the apartment that Kwatemba and Onyango shared. Neither was able to escape.
“I don’t know how to put it into words,” said Ibrahim Sesay, an LU student from Sierra Leone who had met both men through the school’s tight-knit circle of international students. “It was shocking. When international students come here, it’s because they want to better their lives through education. Everyone looks up to their friends and wants to see their dreams come true.
“For something like this to happen, I don’t know what to say,” he reflected. “I just wish it didn’t happen.”
Kwatemba and Onyango’s identities were initially withheld after Sunday’s fire, pending notification of their families, but the fire department confirmed their names Tuesday.
Fire Marshal Greg Wormser said investigators have determined that the fire was accidental and began when something burned on the stove.
The only other person in the apartment at the time was Onyango’s girlfriend, who managed to get out of the building.
Wormser said she had been asleep, but was awoken by the smoke that was engulfing the room. “She woke up because she couldn’t breathe,” he said.
Wormser said officials do not know what Kwatemba and Onyango were doing when the fire erupted or why they were not able to escape. Firefighters found them in the living room. One was underneath a window. The other was next to a door.
Three people also lived in an apartment upstairs. They all escaped without injury.
Wanjohi, an LU student who is also from Kenya, said when he heard about the fire he rushed straight over to the house. Even from the outside, it was immediately apparent how bad it had been.
“You could tell,” he said. “The windows were burned down and the curtains were back. Looking inside, everything was black. You could tell it was a huge fire.”
“It’s been really painful,” he said, his eyes growing damp with tears. “I’m still in shock right now. I haven’t really accepted that they’ve passed away.”
LU said it has been in contact with Kwatemba and Onyango’s families and are helping make arrangements to send their bodies home. The school is also making plans for a local memorial service.
Although Kwatemba and Onyango both arrived in Lynchburg alone, they quickly built up a strong group of friends through LU’s network of international students.
Kenyan students — a particularly small group with just 25 students currently enrolled at the university — are especially close. When asked how Kwatemba and Onyango came to know each other in Lynchburg, Wanjohi said it was simple enough. “They were both Kenyan.”
As the students attempt to deal with the loss of their own, they are turning to prayer and reflecting upon their own lives. Wanjohi said, for him, the tragedy has been an eye-opening experience.
“It makes you realize that life is short,” he said. “Your friends could be here one day and not be here tomorrow. You have to tell them how much you love them. You don’t know when you’re going to see them again.”
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