ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602260072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
It seemed like a typical warm-weather Sunday at Radford University, with students tossing Frisbees across the lawn, walking dogs and chatting in groups.
But just beyond the campus, at a burned-out apartment house on Grove Avenue, students were remembering a friend.
Firefighters found senior Christopher Thomas Mirch in the upstairs bathroom of the two-story off-campus apartment. Police said the smoke was thickest there because the room was directly above the heart of the Saturday morning fire. Mirch, who police said was in his 20s, was pronounced dead after being rushed to Radford Community Hospital.
"All I can tell you is he didn't deserve this, and I hope they make an investigation and find out what happened," said Dan Navarrete, who graduated from Oakton High School a year ahead of Mirch and preceded him as a Radford student.
The city fire marshal, city police and state police are awaiting a laboratory analysis to determine what caused the fire.
"He was one of the best people I've ever known - always happy, never did anything to hurt anybody, friendly ... always on the go ... not someone you get to meet every day," Navarrete said.
Colby Miller, who graduated in 1992 with Mirch from Oakton before Mirch's family moved to Centreville, said Mirch was majoring in geography and geology. He said Mirch planned on drawing geological survey maps with some large company when he graduated.
Some of Mirch's roommates were moving items out of the house Saturday and Sunday but would not talk about their friend.
Mirch played football and wrestled in high school, but his photograph is not in any of the Radford University yearbooks. Navarrete said getting their pictures in the annual seemed less important to them in college than it had in high school.
Navarrete said he began getting telephone calls within hours of the fire from up and down the East Coast about Mirch. "He had a lot of friends," Navarrete said.
There were men who had graduated from Radford and returned this weekend after hearing what had happened. One had driven to Radford from Atlanta and was awaiting word of when the funeral would be.
Money & King Funeral Home in Vienna is handling arrangements, which were incomplete Sunday.
An autopsy is scheduled today in Roanoke.
Mirch was the second Radford student to die this month. The other was Valerie Cole, 18, who died Feb. 10 from alcohol poisoning.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB