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1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse
At approximately 2:42 a.m. on November 18, 1999, the annual Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University collapsed during its construction, killing 12 people and injuring 27.
The 59-foot-high (18 m) stack, consisting of about 5,000 logs, collapsed during construction. Immediately after the collapse, emergency medical technicians and trained first responders 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, the state's elite emergency response team, arrived to assist the rescue efforts.
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 satellite trucks were broadcasting from the Texas A&M campus.
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 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, Steely Lumber Company in Huntsville, Texas, sent log-moving equipment and operators.
Of the 58 students and former students working on the stack, 12 were killed and 27 were injured. Ten students and one former student were killed in the initial collapse, while another student died in the hospital the next day bringing the death toll to twelve. John Comstock was the last living person to be removed from the stack. He spent months in the hospital following amputation of his left leg and partial paralysis of his right side. He returned to A&M in 2001 to finish his degree.
The university gave the National Forestry Hero Award to an employee of Steely Lumber Co., James Gibson, for rescuing students. By January 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 Turlock, California by way of private aircraft; most of those on board were students. The total amount of funds spent by the university on all disaster-related expenses by that date was $292,000.
For two years, the university pondered options for reinstating the tradition. University president Ray 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 liability insurance 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 Robert Gates 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". In 2002, students formed a non-profit to continue the tradition off-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 Texas Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry, packed Reed Arena 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". Only after all of the rescue workers and family members had left the facility did the audience depart.
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1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse
At approximately 2:42 a.m. on November 18, 1999, the annual Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University collapsed during its construction, killing 12 people and injuring 27.
The 59-foot-high (18 m) stack, consisting of about 5,000 logs, collapsed during construction. Immediately after the collapse, emergency medical technicians and trained first responders 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, the state's elite emergency response team, arrived to assist the rescue efforts.
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 satellite trucks were broadcasting from the Texas A&M campus.
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 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, Steely Lumber Company in Huntsville, Texas, sent log-moving equipment and operators.
Of the 58 students and former students working on the stack, 12 were killed and 27 were injured. Ten students and one former student were killed in the initial collapse, while another student died in the hospital the next day bringing the death toll to twelve. John Comstock was the last living person to be removed from the stack. He spent months in the hospital following amputation of his left leg and partial paralysis of his right side. He returned to A&M in 2001 to finish his degree.
The university gave the National Forestry Hero Award to an employee of Steely Lumber Co., James Gibson, for rescuing students. By January 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 Turlock, California by way of private aircraft; most of those on board were students. The total amount of funds spent by the university on all disaster-related expenses by that date was $292,000.
For two years, the university pondered options for reinstating the tradition. University president Ray 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 liability insurance 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 Robert Gates 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". In 2002, students formed a non-profit to continue the tradition off-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 Texas Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry, packed Reed Arena 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". Only after all of the rescue workers and family members had left the facility did the audience depart.