Aggie Bonfire Tragedy - In an Instant Buried by Bonfire

[WildBill]

An Aggie friend of mine posted this link to a 20/20 episode about the 1999 bonfire that collapsed.
He was a student at A&M and got injured when this occurred. He hasn't watched it yet.
Neither have I.



Here is a news story.
http://www.goodbullhunting.com/2016/7/2 ... by-bonfire

[puma guy]

An Aggie friend of mine posted this link to a 20/20 episode about the 1999 bonfire that collapsed.
He was a student at A&M and got injured when this occurred.

Here is a news story.
http://www.goodbullhunting.com/2016/7/2 ... by-bonfire

Glad your friend survived. I watched the special on TV. We were at the campus the weekend before the collapse to visit the presentations for potential students. I can't remembered what they called it officially. Our daughter had a friend that came to see us from working on the structure. We learned that after the tragedy she wasn't working at the time, but knew some of the injured . Our daughter was already signed up for A&M and we'd payed her dorm deposit, but decided just before she finished high school to go to Dallas Baptist University.

[maverick2076]

I haven't watched it yet. That was my senior year in the Corps. Our outfit was supposed to have Stack that night, but we also had guardroom, and we didn't have enough people to work both, so we had given our shift to a Band outfit. I had been out at the Chicken that night with one of my underclassmen, and we had talked about going to Stack, but I decided we had drank to much, so we went back to the Quad to go to bed. I had just crawled into bed when that same upperclassmen ran into my room to tell me Stack had fallen. We got dressed and ran out of the dorm to go help, but the bulls wouldn't let any cadets leave the Quad until they had established some sort of accountability. I went to the Guardroom, helped my buddy who was the Officer of the Day get accountability, and then headed to the Stack site. The rest of the day is a tangled blur of hard work and emotions for me. I lost two friends that day. I'll be honest...I'm not sure if I'm ready to watch that.

[WildBill]

It looks like the video has been taken down. I'll look for another link.

Here is a link to another story.

Most of those killed were working on the top level of the 40-foot stack of logs when it crumbled without warning just before 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

Twenty-eight students were injured as one of Texas A&M University's most prized traditions buckled, including four students who had to be extracted from the pile of more than 5,000 logs.

The students killed in the accident include: Jeremy Richard Frampton, a senior from Turlock, Calif.; Jamie Lynn Hand, a freshman from Henderson; Christopher Lee Heard, a freshman from Houston; Lucas John Kimmel, a freshman from Corpus Christi; Bryan Allan McClain, a freshman from San Antonio; Chad Anthony Powell, a sophomore from Keller; Jerry Don Self, a sophomore from Arlington; Nathan Scott West, a sophomore from Bellaire; Miranda Adams, a sophomore from Pasadena, Texas; and Michael Ebanks, a freshman.

One former student also was killed, Christopher David Breen of Austin, who graduated 1997 and once was active in building Bonfire. It was unclear why he was working at the site where, at the time of the accident, as many as 70 students hung from safety belts while working.

http://m.myaggienation.com/bonfire/bonf ... l?mode=jqm

[Texsquatch]

I DVR'd Burning Desire a week ago. Finally got up the nerve to watch it Sunday morning. I held on until The Last Corps Trip during the credits then broke down. Still gets to me whenever the subject comes up.

[WildBill]

Here is a new link http://abc.go.com/shows/in-an-instant/e ... by-bonfire

[RoyGBiv]

I'm visiting A&M with one of my kids later today.
Will be stopping by the memorial around noon if it's not raining.
Thanks for posting.

[The Annoyed Man]

Thanks for posting that. It was hard to watch, and inspiring at the same time. I loved being an Aggie. And even though I ultimately did not graduate from there, I am still proud of having been part of A&M for a time. I was there a little over 20 years before the bonfire collapse, so it was a time stuck right in the middle of an amazing tradition. I did not know the story of Tim Kerlee, and his self-sacrifice. His parents were equally amazing.

[WildBill]

Thanks for posting that. It was hard to watch, and inspiring at the same time. I loved being an Aggie. And even though I ultimately did not graduate from there, I am still proud of having been part of A&M for a time. I was there a little over 20 years before the bonfire collapse, so it was a time stuck right in the middle of an amazing tradition. I did not know the story of Tim Kerlee, and his self-sacrifice. His parents were equally amazing.

I finally got to view the whole thing. I thought it was well done. At the time it happened I was living in California and never knew anything about it.