Several students were killed, and many more injured when the bonfire structure collapsed early this morning. I know we have several former Aggies on this board including Robert Cook and his wife, and Old Git's husband. Please pray for the families. Thanks!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 18, 1999

Answers

Not to make light, Gayla (I'm a Texan, after all), but I don't think there's any such thing as a "former" Aggie. They're Aggies for life.

My daughter knows several students at A&M and she travels there occasionally. As a parent, my first thought was, "God, I hope she's not there."

-- Vic (Rdrunner@internetwork.net), November 18, 1999.

Latest report is that there are 5 dead, 25-30 injured, and 4 still trapped under the logs.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 18, 1999.

thanks for letting us know...born, raised as a son of an english professor at College Station's Texas A&M. Mom still lives there.

-- Feller (feller@wanna.help), November 18, 1999.

It is a very sad situation. They just brought out another body.

I know what you mean Vic... my precious niece is attending A & M and will graduate next month. She is OK, for which I am REALLY thanking God, but my heart goes out to all of the other families.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 18, 1999.

From an earlier news report by the Associated Press:

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 18  At least four college students were killed and several others injured Thursday after logs they were stacking for an annual bonfire event collapsed and crushed them, officials said. As many as 50 Texas A&M University students were on top of the stack of logs when the accident happened early this morning, according to university officials.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 18, 1999.

Danny, forget your meds?

Please people, this guy isn't worth the time. Gayla asked for prayers. There are grieving people tonight in Texas. I will pray.

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), November 18, 1999.

Thanks, BB! I really appreciate it! :-)

Will Huett, good to see you still around! I didn't know you were an Aggie... it's an awesome school.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 18, 1999.

With greatest sympathies.

We share in grief with the Texas A&M community the anguish that this terrible tragedy that has wrought in claiming the lives of our fellow Texan sons and daughters.

May their souls rest eternally in the peace and comfort of our Lord.

Gig'em, Aggies.

-- Lisa, and all other Austinites. (lisa@grief.now), November 19, 1999.

Thanks, Lisa! That means a lot! I know we've kidded a little about the Longhorn/Aggie rivalry, but at a time like this, none of that seems important. I really appreciate your post! :'')

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 19, 1999.

Gayla,

Sad, very sad.

BTW... As part of the "Zero Troll Tolerance" much of the slug fest on your thread's been snipped.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 19, 1999.

To all you Texans

Very sorry about the tragic loss of your Aggie brethren. Texas A&M seems to have more than it's fair share of tragedy. Huge loss....

Danny

Very happy to admit I've never run across someone like you in real life. Maybe one day our paths will cross and someone will teach you some manners. Fortunately, pieces of s like you are few and far between.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), November 19, 1999.

From the Dallas Morning News, front page section, November 19, 1999

page 18a:

By Terrence Stutz Austin Bureau of the Dallas Morning News

Organizers said construction of the 55-foot-high wooden structure that was to be set ablaze before Texas A & M's annual football game against the University of Texas was anything but haphazard. The effort involved thousands of students supervised by a core group of about 18 juniors and seniors called "Red Pots" for the red safety helmets they wear at the site. The Red Pots worked from very specific engineering information passed down from several generations of student builders at Texas A & M. There were instructions on raising the massive center pole of spliced logs, how to set the four perimeter poles attached by ropes 150 feet away, and the procedure for laying the oak logs in between, held together by heavy-gauge bailing wire. Precise log-stacking has been at the center of the bonfire tradition for decades. Students use surveying equipment from the university's civil engineering department to stand the center pole straight and also to mark the height of each of the six tiers of logs around the center. Between 6,000 and 7,000 logs are used in each bonfire, which is layered like a wedding cake. In the nearly three weeks that it takes to raise the structure, little work is done during the day. But in the evening, after students are out of class, the bonfire site becomes a busy construction zone. In the final 10-12 days, crews work in two shifts, from 6 pm to midnight and midnight to 6 am, during what is called "push"--the layering of stacks and logs around the center pole.

A crane donated by San Antonio-based H.B. Zachry Co. was used to lift the logs and waiting workers tied them together with wire. Red Pots climb up and "walk the stack" to make sure the logs are even. "It is a well-orchestrated and intensive effort," said Aggie Eric Bearse, who worked on bonfire with his Corps of Cadets unit until his graduation in 1993. Mr. Bearse, now an aide to Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, who is also an Aggie, said the Red Pots are "always in control of the construction", which utilizes several corps units and other groups of student volunteers.

Vicki Waddy, a spokesperson for Zachry, said the construction company supplied one crane and two operators for this year's bonfire.

"They are told what to do by the engineers on site," Ms. Waddy said.

Over several fall weekends before the building starts, students travel around the area to cut down trees for property owners who want their land cleared. The logs are then hauled by trucks to the A & M campus.

In 1994, construction was interrupted when the area was drenched with 18 inches of rain over two days a week before bonfire. The ground beneath the stack shifted, causing the base of the structure to buckle.

Bonfire leader that year decided to topple it and reassemble the stack. After bonfire that year, crews laid out over 2 tons of lime on the site, hardening the ground considerably."

From page 19a:

"The Construction, The Search"

"Almost a century of tradition and history make up the Aggie bonfire. What starts out as almost 7,000 logs becomes a monument to one school's legacy. Students typically spend a total of 125,000 work hours per year building the bonfire. A look at how the Aggies have built their bonfire since 1947, the first year the spliced center pole was introduced:

A Look At The Center Pole:

The top cap serves as an attachment point for two "tag lines" that go through pulleys. The tag lines are also used to raise the timbers. Also, guy wires are attached and fastened to four light towers below.

As many as 50 carabiners are secured to the top of the pole. The workers "on stack" are suspended from ropes that connect to these carabiners.

Engineers hoist logs into place using a pulley system. Once in place, the logs are secured together using heavy-gauge bailing wire.

The tag line steadies the line as a truck backs up, pulling a log to the desired level. The tag line stabilizes and "steers" the log to the worker above.

An engineer known as the "scarecrow" directs a ground crew known as a "tag line" team.

When the stack is finished, the top cap and carabiner assembly are sawed off, the parts to be used the following year.

The center pole is actually made up of two logs, joined with bolts, steel plates and 3/8 inch steel cable. After matching notches are cut into the two poles that form the center pole, five gallons of wood glue are applied to the surfaces to be joined. Eight long bolts and four steel plates hold the two pieces together.

3/8 steel cable is then wrapped around the joint (secured by steel staples). The center pole is lifted into its 10 foot hole in the ground.

Doesn't exactly sound like drunken dunb kids jumping up and down on an unsecured pile of logs does it?????

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 19, 1999.

Hey, Preparing,

Thanks for posting that very informative article. I know that the focus right now is on the splice between the two telephone poles which make up the center pole. It sounds like they spliced it well, except the article did not say how much overlap splice has (how long it is).

I suspect that the length of the splice is more than adequate, considering how well engineered it seems to be.

My son is a graduate of A and M, and I have seen enough of this school and the students and staff to know that they are generally very, very competent.

So, what happened? It seems unbelievable that something went wrong with the engineering or construction techniques. So what does that leave? I don't even want to think that it could be true, but there has been an awful lot of competition between these Texas schools over the years. (My dad told me of an incident at a football game beteen Baylor U, where he was a student, and A and M, where a couple of fams ran out onto the field at half time and bopped some of the band members on the head--a couple of them died.) There have been many, many "pranks" pulled over the years. Ask any Aggie why they call the students at University of Texas "BEVOS".

I hope that the cause of this tragedy does not turn out to be another prank, this time by the BEVOS.

ALK

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), November 19, 1999.

I should like to add that the City of Austin is in grief and many are flying the Texas flag at half mast. The UT football team, as well as the Austin Blood and Tissue Center are sponsoring blood drives today both in memorium and to contribute to the A&M medical community.

We are also driving with headlights on today.

-- lisa (lisa@work.now), November 19, 1999.

Lisa, that's great. I hope I didn't come across as implying that anyone at UT would have deliberately caused this tragedy. I'm only saying that I wonder if (and hope I'm wrong) it could have been a BEVO prank gone awry.

ALK

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), November 19, 1999.

Strikes close to home - first time since 1972 we have not had somebody from our immediate family (or their friends) not at A&M, not working on the bonfire.

Sorry for their losses - wish I could more than offer my condolances.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 19, 1999.

Lisa, that is great. As a former student, I am really touched by all the things they are doing in Austin.

I'm sorry I can't remember who was asking about the center pole, but they revealed today that they discovered that it broke off very close to the ground, so the spliced part actually had nothing to do with it.

Nah, I never liked those teasips (!!) but I would never accuse them of something like that.

A physicist on a radio station today was talking about how, in light of the fact that it broke off very close to the ground, it was just a chance thing. That they take that chance every year, actually. Doesn't matter if the hole it is in is 60 ft deep or 10ft deep (as it is).

What a tragedy.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 19, 1999.

Thanks, Diane, for cleaning up the thread. And thanks to all the rest of you for your kind posts. The final total of students who lost their lives was 11; there are still several in the hospital in critical condition.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 19, 1999.

I thought this was touching and wanted to share it:

I had the great privilege of attending the memorial service at A&M tonight and was deeply moved by the events I experienced. The A&M student body is truly one of the great treasures of our State. As part of the UT delegation, we sat on the floor of Reed Arena, and immediately following the end of the service, I heard a rustling sound behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw the sight of close to 20,000 students spontaneously putting their arms on their neighbor's shoulders, forming a great circle around the arena. The mass stood there in a pin-drop silence for close to five minutes, then, from somewhere, someone began to hum quietly the hymn "Amazing Grace". Within seconds, the whole arena was singing. I tried too--I choked, I cried. This event brought me to tears. It was one if not the defining moment of my college career. I learned something tonight. For all us Longhorns discount A&M in our never-ending rivalry, we need to realize one thing. Aggieland is a special place, with special people. It is infinitely better equipped than us at dealing with a tragedy such as this for one simple reason. It is a family. It is a family that cares for its own, a family that reaches out, a family that is unified in the face of adversity; a family that moved this Longhorn to tears. My heart, my prayers; and the heart of the UT student body go out tonight to Aggies and their family and friends as they recover from this great loss. Texas A&M, The Eyes of Texas are Upon You-- and they look with sincere sympathy upon a family that has been through so much tragedy this semester.

Eric Opiela

UT Student Body

Vice President

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 20, 1999.

My husband, who as a member of the Corps of Cadets (NAVY ROTC) participated in building the bonfire four years running, is at a loss to explain what might have happened. The utmost care is taken in the building of the pile and (at least when he was at A&M) participants were instructed in its construction and safety before they were allowed near the site.

Without at all making light of this tragedy, we have to accept that we cannot guard against every possible accident, no matter how many precautions are taken. It's a very, very sad period for A&M.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 20, 1999.