The Aggie Bonfire Collapse
Added 2023-11-28 11:15:01 +0000 UTCAs you might expect from such a long-held tradition, there’s a lot of history around the Aggie Bonfire. One thoroughly memorable footnote (that I couldn’t find space for in the video) concerns the many attempts through the years to light it up before it was due to be burned.
Schemes have included planting explosives in the stack, and even hiring an aircraft to fly over the build site and drop firebombs. This (quite eccentric) plan was tried twice, once in 1933 and once in 1948, by students from the rival University of Texas.
Indeed, in the lead up to the disaster, a fan of the rival team was hatching a plan to prematurely burn the bonfire – and it was an elaborate one. It involved a model aircraft (rigged to burst into flames) which he intended to pilot into the stack from afar. Of course, before that could happen, the collapse took place, and any thoughts of bonfire-burning pranks were forever discarded.
Comments
It's one of those things that might have worked fine when the bonfire was very small and constructed with smaller logs... but definitely wasn't fit for purpose for the six-storey structure they were building!
Fascinating Horror
2023-12-04 19:39:50 +0000 UTCThat makes sense - A&M has changed a lot over the years, and the changing demographic would definitely make the build a less safe prospect (especially when combined with the escalating bonfire sizes). And you're right - that motto hits home in a very different way in light of the collapse!
Fascinating Horror
2023-12-04 19:39:06 +0000 UTCMy father graduated from A&M in 1960. I attended several of these bonfires with him when I was young. Then I dated a guy who went to A&M and attended a few with him. It was a grand spectacle. As someone mentioned on the YouTube chat for this post, the demographic of the student body greatly changed over the years. When the bonfires initially began, most of the students were farmers or engineers. Their knowledge for building the structure was probably based on experience or from their schooling. Once this demographic changed and the desire to increase the structure with each year happened, the lack of involvement of more learned people is definitely something that should have raised red flags. I had not remembered that twelve people died in this catastrophe. Now their saying of "Home of the 12th Man" seems very eerie and sad.
Kathryn Clark
2023-12-04 19:31:01 +0000 UTC
