Aggie Bonfire
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The Aggie Bonfire was a long-lasting tradition begun in 1909 at Texas A&M University until a tragic accident in 1999.
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Bonfire
The first bonfire was a pile of junk that students threw together and lit on fire to keep warm. As the years passed, the tradition evolved into an organized event to display school spirit against the school's arch-rivals, the University of Texas. Each year, both schools played against each other in an annual football game on Thanksgiving weekend. The idea behind the bonfire was to symbolize the Aggies' "burning" desire to beat the "hell" out of t.u. ("t.u." is a derogatory nickname used by Aggies to describe their rivals in Austin.)
By 1943, bonfire was constructed entirely with logs and stood 25 feet high (7.6 meters). The tallest bonfire was constructed in 1969 at 109 feet (33 meters), but the maximum height was later capped by the University to 55 feet (16.5 meters). The structure was composed of a 'centerpole' spliced from several logs that was erected first. Afterwards, logs were placed vertically around the centerpole in a multi-tiered wedding cake design composed of thousands of logs (earlier versions used a smaller 'teepee' configuration). Construction of the bonfire was performed volountarily by Texas A&M students, who worked around the clock during the fall semester, leading up to a few days before the annual game. Students cut down logs on their own ('Cut') and brought them to campus, working around the clock to construct a massive bonfire ('Stack'). An orange outhouse (orange being the colors of the University of Texas) was placed on top of the bonfire stack, painted with derogatory statements against their rivals. Once the bonfire was complete, it was doused with jet fuel and set on fire the night before the big game. This event was very popular amongst the current and former students and people would travel from all over the state and even the nation to observe the burning of bonfire.
Collapse
This tradition continued annually (except in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy) until November 18, 1999 when the annual Aggie Bonfire collapsed during its construction at 2:42 AM, killing twelve students and injuring 27 others. Rescue operations took several days, hampered by the fact that the logs were mainly removed by hand for fear that using heavy equipment to removed the logs would cause further collapses, resulting in further injuries to students still trapped in the log jam. Bonfire survivor John Comstock was the last living person to be removed from the stack, and spent months in the hospital, following amputation of his left leg and partial paralysis of his right side. Comstock would eventually return to A&M in 2001 and complete his degree.
Those who lost their lives
The twelve students who lost their lives in the 1999 collapse.
- Miranda Denise Adams, Class of 2002.
- Christopher D. Breen, Class of 1996. (had previously graduated)
- Michael Stephen Ebanks, Class of 2003.
- Jeremy Richard Frampton, Class of 1999.
- Jamie Lynn Hand, Class of 2003.
- Christopher Lee Heard, Class of 2003.
- Timothy Doran Kerlee, Jr., Class of 2003.
- Lucas John Kimmel, Class of 2003.
- Bryan A. McClain, Class of 2002.
- Chad A. Powell, Class of 2003.
- Jerry Don Self, Class of 2001.
- Nathan Scott West, Class of 2002.
Aftermath and Controversy
Following the collapse, further bonfires were put on termporary hold until 2002, when the University announced it was permanently discontinued. A commission put together by Texas A&M University discovered that a number of factors led to the collapse of the bonfire, including "excessive internal stresses" on the logs and "inadequate containment strength," where the wiring used to tie the logs together was not strong enough. Many people further blamed the school for the accident, saying that, in the name of tradition, they turned a blind eye to an unsafe structure being constructed with very minimal engineering and safety protocols followed. Prior to the collapse, some people expressed concerns about the safety of bonfire: citing a partial collapse that occurred in a previous bonfire (no injuries), bonfire burn times were progressively shorter in duration (collapse of the stack after been lit from several hours down to 20 or less minutes), and numerous incidents involving alcohol or unsafe horseplay at the bonfire site. Some parents of the slain students later sued the University for the deaths of their children.
Several student groups (without the support of the University itself) have continued the Bonfire tradition off-campus calling it "Student Bonfire." Bonfire Coalition for Students is a recognized student organization that is trying to bring Bonfire back on campus.
A memorial was constructed on the university polo fields, the site of the accident. Construction began October 2003 and was completed by November 2004. On November 18, 2004, five years following the incident, the Bonfire Memorial was officially dedicated.