Aggie Bonfire

[Aggie]

November the 18th is the 10-year anniversary of the deadly Aggie bonfire that left 12 students dead.

Texas A&M students traditionally constructed a 59-foot tower of logs for the school's annual bonfire. It was a celebration of the school's big football game against their arch-rival, the University of Texas Longhorns.

On November 18, 1999, the tower was poorly constructed. It collapsed, killing a dozen students.

[larry kremis]

59 feet high, that would be something to see, and respect. Such a shame.

[Aggie]

In 1969 it had a world record height of 107 feet, 10 inches.

[Aggie]

The first Aggie Bonfire was beleived to have been 1909.

[Aggie]

In its later years, students building Bonfire used logs donated by local landowners who wanted their land cleared for construction or farming. Over 8000 logs were used each year in the late 1990s, taking about 5000 students a combined 125,000 man-hours to construct. The bonfire was normally burned the night before the annual football game against the University of Texas when at home and two nights before the game when it was played in Austin.

This event was very popular amongst current and former students and people traveled from all over the state and the nation to observe the burning of Bonfire. Hotel rooms within a 65-mile radius of College Station were booked weeks or months in advance of the date Bonfire burned. Crowds ranged from 30,000 to 70,000 people, depending on the weather and the strength of the Aggie football team.

[Aggie]

In fall 2008 when litigation concerning Aggie Bonfire was cleared, there was much speculation among students that Bonfire would be brought back to campus.

"It's not just whether it should be in this county or back on campus," said former Student Body President Mark Gold. "It's so much bigger than that."

Former Texas A&M University President Elsa Murano, along with Gold, was the first administrator to make contact with the 12 fallen Aggies' parents after the lawsuits in 2008. They were able to meet with 10 of them during winter break.

"The point of conversation was to extend a hand from the University and hear the story of the son or daughter they lost," said Gold, a senior biomedical science major. "Never explicitly did Murano or I ask 'Do you think Bonfire should be brought back?'"

Gold said the plan was to finish meeting with the families over the summer and then finish the decision-making process. However, when Murano resigned over the summer, that process came to a halt.

"We're back in a little limbo; a waiting game," Gold said.

Administrators and the Student Government Association do not deny the question everybody wants answered is if Bonfire will be returning to campus.

"Everybody's asking if Bonfire is going to be brought back," said Student Government Association legislative relations director Logan Nichols, a senior agricultural economics major. "But until all the litigation has been resolved and until all the stakeholders of Bonfire have been consulted a decision will not be made."

Interim A&M President R. Bowen Loftin said if Bonfire were to return, the tradition would undergo major changes.

"If it were to come back in the future, it would be a different type of process, I'm sure," Loftin said. "There would be some pretty strict guidelines. [Former A&M President] Loftin also signed an agreement with the Professional Engineering Licensing saying that if we ever do Bonfire again we will follow their standards of doing so."

Although a hold has been put on making a decision as to whether Bonfire will be brought back to campus, this year's administrators and Student Government Association have made sure the 12 fallen Aggies and their families are remembered.

"Aggies have always been very respectful to those who lost their lives while students here and while serving in other capacities after leaving here," Loftin said. "Because these deaths happened in the context of Aggie tradition, it's actually more important than ever before for us to remember what happened."

Tonight the University will have a commemorative ceremony in Reed Arena for the families of the fallen 12. At 2:42 a.m. Wednesday morning, a candlelight vigil will take place at the Bonfire Memorial.

"The focus is on the 12 fallen Aggies and those who were affected by it," said Student Body President Kolin Loveless, a senior mechanical engineering major. "And not just those who died, but also those who were injured and those who were there and experienced it."

Loftin said he hopes this year's 10th anniversary ceremonies will help the families, victims and students to move forward.

"Ten years has gone by, that's a long time in the measure of a student's life. We hope that by having a special event this year some of the families can achieve some of their closure and a sense of moving beyond this. We will never forget those who lost their lives here, but at the same time, we must go on in our lives too," Loftin said.

Even though the confounding question of Bonfire being brought back to campus does not yet have an answer, Loftin did comment on the current state of litigation and who might be able to make a definitive decision at some point in the future.

"Even though the litigation involving A&M directly has been settled, there is still a lawsuit outstanding against a company, and we have been brought in as a third party, so it's not totally done," Loftin said. "I'm interim president right now. I'll be here for some uncertain time, and it would be inappropriate for me as interim president to set any wheels in motion that would lead to the Bonfire being brought back. I think the president that the board will select probably sometime within the next year will be the person that will face that particular decision. But I do think that we should face it with true knowledge of what happened and why it happened."
source: Rebekah Skelton "the battalion online" The student voice of Texas A&M since 1893.

[realteal]

Thanks for bringing this anniversary to our attention; I remember the news well.
It's still hard to believe 12 students died from a bonfire gone awry; what a tragedy.

[Pixiegirl]

Thanks Aggie...seems like it was yesterday. DO you ever go to the unsanctioned one?

[Aggie]

No, my last bonfire was with my kids 11 years ago and I visited the site 10 years ago.