Texas A&M marks 25 years since deadly bonfire collapse

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Monday marks the 25th anniversary of the deadly bonfire collapse on Texas A&M University's campus.

Two-and-a-half decades later, the tradition continues to live on off-campus.

It's a day the Aggie community will never forget, when the 60-foot-tall bonfire structure collapsed on November 18th, 1999. Twenty-seven people were injured, and 12 died:

• Miranda Denise Adams ’02
• Christopher D. Breen ’96
• Michael Stephen Ebanks ’03
• Jeremy Richard Frampton ’99
• Jamie Lynn Hand ’03
• Christopher Lee Heard ’03
• Timothy Doran Kerlee Jr. ’03
• Lucas John Kimmel ’03
• Bryan A. McClain ’02
• Chad A. Powell ’03
• Jerry Don Self ’01
• Nathan Scott West ’02

Five years later, the Bonfire Memorial was dedicated on campus at the exact location of the fallen bonfire.

Even now, the community continues to hold onto the legacies of those who passed, but to Aggies and fans alike, it's more than just burning wood.

It started out as a scrap heap in 1907, then became a stack of vertical logs. The school says the "Fightin Texas Aggie Bonfire" symbolizes the burning desire to beat the University of Texas at Austin in football.

"It's the embodiment of the Aggie spirit is what I like to call it. So, it's all our core values wrapped into a physical thing," said Mason Taylor, who heads the student run bonfire.

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The bonfire even attracts up to 70,000 people each year to watch it burn.

It burned on campus each year through 1998 except for 1963, as a tribute to President John F. Kennedy after his assassination.

The second time in A&M’s history that the bonfire did not burn on campus was almost exactly 92 years after the first bonfire due to its collapse in 1999. 

Still from file video of the collapsed bonfire taken on Nov. 18, 1999.

Taylor says after a break of two years in 2002, it was brought back by students as a brush fire before being refined into the stack we see today. The student-led group has taken part in building the bonfire back about 15 miles off campus every year since then.

"We haven't forgotten about them. And a lot of the families actually do come out here and support us. And to those that don't, they appreciate what we do because we do it safely. Every 12 of those kids would have wanted this to continue because it's the best tradition," said Taylor.

Taylor says over 500 students actively participate from February to November every day of the week to build the bonfire made up of 2500 logs.

"Prep for this started in January of last year, but then construction, I guess you could say, began in August with cut. So, during August, September, October, we'll go out and actually cut the trees down by hand before we ship over here on those trailers and then start stacking," said Taylor.

But this year marks a new beginning ahead of a long-awaited match-up between the Aggies and the Longhorns, now that Texas has joined the SEC. The last time the two teams met was 2011; the rivalry was put on pause in 2012 when Texas A&M left the Big 12 Conference for the SEC.

Photo of the bonfire being built ahead of the Nov. 30 game between the Aggies and the Longhorns. (Jenna King)

"Before it burns, there'll be an outhouse on the top, which is just kind of the decoration piece," said Taylor. "Now it'll be painted burnt orange."

Taylor says the stack will burn on Nov. 29 ahead of the big game between the Longhorns and Aggies on Nov. 30.

Texas A&M is holding a Bonfire Remembrance Ceremony at the memorial site on Monday at 2:42 am. The university president is inviting the community to stand together as one to remember the 12 lost.

The Bonfire Reflections Display, featuring photographs and information about each of the fallen Aggies, will be open to students and members of the public from midnight until 2 a.m. in the lobby of the Jack K. Williams Administration Building.