Texas A&m University

Texas A&M University and the University of Texas have been rivals for over 90 years. Every year Texas A&M held an annual bonfire tradition which attracts thousands of people. It is a tradition for Texas A& M to build a huge bonfire right before the game against rivals with University of Texas. Students would spend several weeks building the bonfire. On November 18, 1999 the stack of logs collapsed over and killed 12 A&M students. The aggie bonfire tradition would never again be the same.

In US News, the article “A Tragedy at Texas A& M”, tells how the logs broke in half killing 12 students. On Thursday of November 18, 1999, early that morning the students started working on stacks of logs from the previous days. Students at A & M were very proud of this historical event. The students would gather one week and start to create the bonfire together. But little did they know this would turn into a tragedy. Early morning around 2:30am the logs were thrown everywhere including the students that were working on it that night. About 70 students were at the top of the logs when it suddenly gave way. At least nine killed in collapse of A&M towering, 40-feet pyramid of logs trembled and then came roaring down early Thursday, crushing at least nice students to death and injuring 28 others. At least four of the injured were in critical condition and two people could be seen trapped in the rubble late Thursday afternoon. Rescuers couldn’t tell if they were died or alive. Rescuers had to use sound-detection equipment to listen for moaning, tapping and heard scratching noises that led them to believe there were victims trapped.

In Time magazine, the article “A Good Time Goes Bad”, explains, how a junior at Texas A& M University, embarked this fall on a rite of passages that began in 1909. Fernando Shaun was an eye- witness to this tragedy late that night. The week before the accident Fernando would help cut the wood and load the trucks. He worked hard around the clock to build the wooden tower. At 2:28am is when he saw the 44-ft tall tower fall to the ground. After 24 hours the rescue workers had found 12 dead bodies and 28 were injured. The people began to question, why did the tower fall? Who was in charge that night? It was a puzzle to everyone to what possible went wrong. They have had previous problems before like in 1994 when the ground underneath the logs became very soaked from heavy rain and the officials ordered the logs to be cut down. Professor Hug Wilson, who leads Aggie against bonfire says, “People are saying thee students gave their lives for the cause, but their lives were clearly taken.” The University officials canceled this year’s bonfire but Fernando says “It should be carried on in the spirit of tradition.

The article “Texas Tragedy Unraveled” says, the panel blames faulty structure lack of supervision for collapse. The panel had discovered that there was excessive weight on the lower part of the body and the middle stack was found with wrong wiring and gaps. The panel also found the logs were standing too vertical and overbuilt. School President Ray Bowen said, he would not decide the bonfire’s fate for another