1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse
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The 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse occurred at approximately 2:42 a.m. on November 18, 1999 in
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, United States. The annual
Aggie Bonfire The Aggie Bonfire was a long-standing annual tradition at Texas A&M University as part of the college rivalry with the University of Texas at Austin. For 90 years, Texas A&M students—known as Aggies—built a bonfire on campus each autumn, kn ...
at
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
collapsed during its construction, killing 12 people and injuring 27.


Collapse

The high stack, consisting of about 5,000 logs, collapsed during construction. Of the 58 students and former students working on the stack, 12 were killed and 27 were injured. Immediately after the collapse, emergency medical technicians and trained
first responders A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...
of the Texas A&M Emergency Care Team (TAMECT), a student-run volunteer service, who staffed each stage of construction, administered first aid to the victims. TAMECT alerted the University Police and University EMS, who dispatched all remaining university medics, and requested mutual aid from surrounding agencies. In addition to the mutual aid received from the College Station and Bryan, Texas EMS, Fire, and Police Departments, members of
Texas Task Force 1 Texas A&M Task Force 1, abbreviated TX-TF1, is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, one of 28 teams that form the FEMA National Urban Search and Rescue System, and as such it is in rotation for deploying to national disasters and incidents ...
, the state's elite emergency response team, arrived to assist the rescue efforts. Rescue operations took over 24 hours; the pace was slowed by the decision to remove many of the logs by hand for fear that using heavy equipment to remove them would cause further collapses, resulting in further injuries to those still trapped. Students, including the entire Texas A&M football team and many members of the university's Corps of Cadets, rushed to the site to assist rescue workers with the manual removal of the logs. The Texas A&M
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
department was also called on to examine the site and help the workers determine the order in which the logs could be safely removed, and, at the request of the
Texas Forest Service Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) is an agency chartered by the Texas Legislature to manage the interests of Texas' forests. The Legislature created the service in 1915. It is a part of the Texas A&M University System and is headquartered in Colle ...
, Steely Lumber Company in
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, sent log-moving equipment and operators. John Comstock was the last living person to be removed from the stack. He spent months in the hospital following
amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...
of his left leg and partial
paralysis Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...
of his right side. Comstock returned to A&M in 2001 to finish his degree.


Response

Within minutes of the collapse, word of the accident spread among students and the community. Before sunrise, the accident was the subject of news reports around the world. Within hours, 50 news
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s were broadcasting from the Texas A&M campus. At noon, students held an impromptu prayer service in the center of campus, at Rudder Fountain. An official memorial service was held less than seventeen hours after the collapse. Over 16,000 mourners, including then
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, packed
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to pay tribute to those who died and those who had spent all day working to rescue the injured. At the end of the service, as A&M University President Ray Bowen presented roses to the families of the dead and injured students, the crowd spontaneously stood in silence, linking arms with those standing next to them, before quietly singing "
Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...
". Only after all of the rescue workers and family members had left the facility did the audience depart. On November 25, 1999, the date that the bonfire would have burned, Aggies instead held a vigil and remembrance ceremony. Over 40,000 people lit candles and observed up to two hours of silence at the site of the collapse, before walking to
Kyle Field Kyle Field is the American football stadium located on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, United States. It has been the home to the Texas A&M Aggies football team in rudimentary form since 1904, and as a permanent con ...
for yell practice. At the stadium, fans relit their candles as the Parsons Mounted Cavalry fired the Aggie cannon twelve times, once for each victim. Former US President
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
, his wife Barbara,
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, and his wife Laura attended the remembrance ceremony. The following day, the Aggies upset the
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, winning 20–16 in the annual rivalry game. The game began with a flyover of
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jets, all piloted by former A&M students, in the
missing man formation The missing man formation is an aerial salute performed as part of a flypast of aircraft at a funeral or memorial event, typically in memory of a fallen pilot, a well-known military service member or veteran, or a well-known political figure. T ...
. This flyover was donated by US Senator
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who, as an elected official, had the title of a flyover reserved for his death and asked that the fly-over be given instead in the honor of the 12 Aggies that died. At
half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...
, the Texas Longhorn Band dedicated their performance to the students lost and injured in the collapse, and ended by playing "Amazing Grace" and " Taps", then removing their white hats in a show of respect as they walked off the field. The
Fightin' Texas Aggie Band The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band (also known as the Noble Men of Kyle Field, Kyle or just the Aggie Band) is the official marching band of Texas A&M University. Composed of over 400 men and women from the school's Texas A&M University Corps of Cadet ...
also played a tribute to the victims and, contrary to the usual tradition, marched off the field in a silent cadence. Aggie students, who normally sit only when the opposing band plays, stood throughout both performances and gave both
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s. The Bonfire Memorial Commission collected the hundreds of thousands of items that were left by grieving visitors at the site of the collapse. At the Systems Building, Texas A&M leaders erected pictures of the deceased students. There, over a dozen seniors left behind their Aggie rings, permanently donating them to the students who did not live long enough to earn their own. Various organizations also established funds in memory of the victims and to help with expenses incurred because of the accident. In total, the funds received exceeded US$250,000.


Investigations

A commission created by Texas A&M University discovered that a number of factors led to the bonfire collapse, including "excessive internal stresses" on the logs and "inadequate containment strength" in the wiring used to tie the logs together. The wiring broke after logs from upper tiers were "wedged" into lower tiers. The
Texas Board of Professional Engineers Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (TBPELS) is a state agency of Texas, headquartered in Austin, that regulates and licenses the practices of engineering and land surveying in the state. The agency was established in 1937 as ...
announced in 2000 that the Aggie Bonfire met the requirements to be considered a complex construction project subject to regulation under state engineering laws and would thus have had to be designed and overseen by a professional engineer.


Aftermath and controversies

On November 19, 1999, ''
The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'' released a
political cartoon A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine a ...
by Steve Benson titled "Texas Bonfire Traditions" that compared the collapse to the
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of 1993 and the 1998
murder of James Byrd Jr. James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was a black American man who was murdered by three white men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged him fo ...
This prompted criticism and negative reactions from the Texas A&M community, and the ''Republic'' removed the cartoon. People sent thousands of e-mails about the cartoon to the newspaper offices. On December 1, the newspaper sent a total of $10,000 in two checks as a
peace offering The peace offering ( he, זֶבַח שְׁלָמִים, zevah shelamim) was one of the sacrifices and offerings in the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 3; 7.11–34). The term "peace offering" is generally constructed from "slaughter offering" and the pl ...
to the university, with $5,000 to the Bonfire Memorial Fund and $5,000 to the Bonfire Relief Fund. The TAMU administration declined to accept the money and returned the checks. TAMU president Ray Bowen stated "Texas A&M will not allow itself to become an agent for ''The Arizona Republic'' as it tries to manage the public criticism it is receiving." By 2000 Texas A&M spent over $80,000 so students and administrators could travel to the funerals of the deceased, including $40,000 so 125 students and staff could attend a funeral in
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by way of private aircraft; most of the persons on board were students. The total amount of funds spent by the university on all disaster-related expenses by that date was $292,000. The university gave the National Forestry Hero Award to an employee of Steely Lumber Co., James Gibson, for rescuing students. Detractors further blamed the school for the accident, saying that, in the name of tradition, administrators turned a blind eye to an unsafe structure being constructed with minimal engineering and safety protocols. Before the collapse, some people, such as Texas A&M engineering professor Theodore Hirsch, expressed concerns about the safety of the bonfire, citing the partial collapse that occurred in a previous bonfire, the progressively shorter bonfire burn times which had dropped from several hours to collapsing in less than 20 minutes, and numerous incidents involving alcohol or unsafe horseplay at the bonfire site. One of the students killed in the 1999 bonfire collapse was under the legal drinking age yet a toxicology test showed high blood-alcohol levels; however, lower readings in a second test and inconsistencies in the initial sampling and annotation methods led to questions about the accuracy of the original tests. Parents of students injured or killed in the collapse filed lawsuits against Texas A&M officials, including President Ray Bowen, Vice President of Student Affairs J. Malon Southerland, the 1999 redpots, and the university. In one of the six lawsuits, plaintiffs alleged that A&M officials violated the bonfire victims' right of due process by placing those victims in a "state-created danger" by not ensuring the bonfire's structural integrity and by allowing unqualified students to work on the stack. The plaintiffs pointed to a $2 million liability policy the university obtained in 1996 and
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policies that the university obtained for student workers as early as 1987 as proof that the administrators knew of the dangers of the bonfire. Texas A&M maintains that the insurance policies were actually purchased by an advisory committee to the bonfire and not the university. On May 21, 2004, US Federal Judge
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dismissed all claims against the Texas A&M officials. In 2005, 36 of the 64 original defendants, including all of the redpots, settled their portion of the case for an estimated $4.25 million, paid by their insurance companies. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the remaining lawsuits against Texas A&M and its officials in April 2007. In October 2007, the
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declined to review the appeals court ruling. For the next two years, the university pondered options for reinstating the tradition. Bowen formed a task force, which proposed a new design. The task force recommended that students be allowed to participate in building the bonfire as long as they were monitored by professional construction experts. Current and former students debated whether the proposed division of labor could be considered a student project. The debate was rendered moot when the university discovered
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for the revamped project would cost more than $2 million per year. In 2002, Bowen announced that the bonfire was officially cancelled. Bowen's successor
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upheld this decision, stating that a "change in the status quo regarding the future of Bonfire would be inappropriate while litigation is still on-going". On October 28, 2008, Texas A&M settled the final lawsuit filed against them by the fire victims and their families. The university agreed to pay $2.1 million and promised that if the bonfire returned to campus that "engineering oversight" would be provided. The final lawsuit, filed against two companies that provided crane operators and cranes for the bonfire, was settled in April 2014.


Notes


References


Further reading

* ''The Texas Aggie Bonfire : tradition and tragedy at Texas A&M'', (2000),


External links


The official Aggie Bonfire site
(now an official memorial site)
The Special Commission on the 1999 Bonfire

The Special Commission on the 1999 Bonfire Final Report
(PDF)
Bonfire Collapse
-
U.S. Fire Administration The United States Fire Administration (USFA) is a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) located in unincorporated Frederick County, Maryland, near Emmitsburg. Per the official website, "the mission of the U.S. Fire Administr ...

Bonfire Position
" -
Texas Board of Professional Engineers Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (TBPELS) is a state agency of Texas, headquartered in Austin, that regulates and licenses the practices of engineering and land surveying in the state. The agency was established in 1937 as ...
News coverage:
Bonfire Tragedy
- ''
Bryan-College Station Eagle ''The Eagle'', officially known as ''The Bryan-College Station Eagle'', is a daily newspaper based in Bryan, Texas, United States. Centered in Brazos County, the paper covers an eight-county area around Bryan-College Station that includes Texas ...
'' coverage of the 1999 bonfire collapse
Bonfire Tragedy
and

- ''
The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...
'' coverage of the 1999 bonfire collapse
Coverage from
the ''
Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Carter acc ...
''
Coverage from
WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...
Websites in favor of the bonfire continuing: * * {{coord, 30.6227, -96.3352, region:US-TX_type:landmark, display=title, name=Bonfire Memorial, notes= - Bonfire Memorial College Station, Texas Engineering failures Fires in Texas Texas A&M University 1999 fires in the United States 1999 in Texas November 1999 events in the United States History of Texas