Texas A&M to mark 25th anniversary of campus bonfire collapse that killed 12

[ad_1] The primary, ominous sounds got here from deep inside the large stack of logs within the darkest hours of the Texas night time. Witnesses described listening to the stack of 1000's of logs moan and creak earlier than the crack of the middle pole because it snapped, then collapsed.

Greater than one million kilos (450,000 kilograms) of timber tumbled. Instantly, 12 folks had been killed, dozens extra had been injured and a college campus rooted in traditions carried throughout generations of scholars was completely scarred.

Texas A&M College is about to mark 25 years because the log stack collapsed within the early hours of Nov. 18, 1999. It was being inbuilt preparation for the annual bonfire forward of the Texas A&M-Texas rivalry soccer sport in Faculty Station.

The varsity will maintain a Bonfire Remembrance ceremony on the web site of the tragedy on Monday at 2:42 a.m., in regards to the time the stack collapsed.

“Yr after 12 months, Texas A&M college students have labored to make sure that we always remember these members of the Aggie Household who had been taken from us 25 years in the past," faculty President Mark Welsh III stated.

The custom

The “Fightin' Texas Aggie Bonfire” ranked among the many most revered traditions in faculty soccer and symbolized the college's “burning want” to beat the College of Texas Longhorns in soccer. The primary bonfire in 1907 was a scrap heap that was set ablaze. By 1909, it was a campus occasion and the bonfire stack saved rising as railroad traces had been used to ship in in carloads of scrap lumber, railroad ties and different flammable supplies, in keeping with the college.

It reached a file peak of 105 toes (32 meters) in 1969 earlier than directors, involved a few fireplace hazard, imposed a 55-foot (17-meter) restrict. Over time, the stack developed from a teepee-style mound into the vertical timber formation, a form much like a tiered wedding ceremony cake, that collapsed in 1999.

The annual bonfire attracted crowds of as much as 70,000 and burned yearly via 1998. The one exception was in 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The tragedy

The stack of greater than 5,000, 18-foot (5.5-meter) logs toppled every week earlier than it was scheduled to burn. The 12 who had been killed included 5 freshmen, 4 sophomores, a junior, a senior and a latest graduate. A number of had been members of the Corps of Cadets, Texas A&M's student-led, military-style group that performed a big position in its building.

Rescuers, together with members of the Texas A&M soccer crew, raced to take away the logs that had trapped and crushed a few of the victims. At rival Texas, Longhorns gamers organized a blood drive to help the survivors.

An investigation ordered by the college decided flawed building led by unqualified pupil staff led to the collapse.

Campus memorial

In 2003, the college devoted a memorial on the spot the place the stack fell. It features a “Spirit Ring” with 12 portals representing those that had been killed. Every portal comprises an engraved portrait and signature of a sufferer and factors towards their hometown. By getting into the open archway, the customer symbolically fills the void left by the deceased.

Efforts to rekindle the bonfire custom

The annual Aggie bonfire was discontinued as an official faculty occasion after the lethal collapse.

The varsity thought of reviving the custom this 12 months to coincide with the renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M soccer rivalry on Nov. 30. The rivalry cut up in 2012 when Texas A&M left the Massive 12 Convention for the Southeastern Convention, however has resumed this 12 months as Texas joined the SEC.

A particular committee really useful resuming the bonfire, however provided that the log stack was designed and constructed by skilled engineers and contractors. Some members of the general public stated it shouldn't come again if it was not organized and constructed by college students, in keeping with custom.

Welsh in the end determined the bonfire wouldn't return to campus.

"Bonfire, each an exquisite and tragic a part of Aggie historical past, ought to stay in our treasured previous,” the president stated in June when he introduced his determination.

College students have continued to arrange and construct unofficial off-campus bonfires over time and plan to burn this 12 months's version on Nov. 29, the night time earlier than the Texas A&M-Texas soccer sport.