Bonfire Collapse - Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas - November 1999)

In keeping with a ninety-year old tradition, fifty-eight people were working to construct the fourth tier of the 1999 bonfire stack on the campus of Texas A&M University during the early morning hours of November 18, 1999. The bonfire is ignited every year on the eve of football game between Texas A&M and its arch rival the University of Texas at Austin. The forty-foot stack, consisting of approximately 5,000 logs, collapsed killing eleven people and sending twenty-eight to area hospitals. One of the injured would later die, bringing the total number killed in the incident to twelve. » Overview » Key Issues » Texas A&M University » The Bryan-College Station Metropolitan Area The Tradition » Construction » The Collapse » Department's Chaplains' Program » The Critics » The Investigation » Aftermath » Lessons Learned

Reproduced from Report 133 of the Major Fires Investigation Project conducted by Varley-Campbell and Associates, Inc./TriData Corporation under contract EME-97-CO-0506 to the United States Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Investigated by: John Lee Cook, Jr.

Acknowledgements: The Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Fire Administration gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of the staff of Texas A & M University and the members of the Bryan and College Station Fire Departments. Everyone who assisted in the preparation of this report was generous with their time, expertise, and counsel.

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