My cousin was one of the injured. He broke his back but luckily did not lose his ability to walk. Still, he was never the same mentally after the incident. I think he felt a lot of survivor's guilt and felt like he was partially to blame since he was one of the people working there when it collapsed. Thank you for covering this.
@@alvinseaside7683 My gosh, how fortunate, just one of those moments of lucky timing in life. I hope he is doing well despite the trauma he no doubt experienced.
A big thing that is often misssed is the change in student demographic. Originally you had a lot of student who worked on farms and in building from the time they were children.They were well versed in building safety and engineering. Over time there were fewer and fewer students with that experience and more who had enthusiasm and just an oral history of building this particular structure to help them along. This was brought to the attention of administration by 2 alumni and they suggested having engineering grad students design and supervise. They weren't taken seriously.
More importantly I think, is that in the years prior to the collapse, the stack was built entirely by the Corp of Cadets with Seniors supervising. And no drinking was allowed either. Things apparently changed during the 90s.
As someone who lives in Europe, I've not heard of this. This channel does such a great job in telling the World of such local tragedies that you wouldn't hear of otherwise.
I didn't get choked up until the end when they showed the memorial, those doors facing the hometown of each victim is an amazing idea to pay proper tribute
I remember this happening. It was state-wide news here in Texas for days as the stories of both victims and survivors emerged. Tim Kerlee, the last and youngest victim to die, is of special note ... his was badly injured, but alive atop the pile. He delayed his own rescue and treatment, instead directing first responders to other trapped students. An eerie photograph was captured of this process. It shows Kerlee lying atop the logs, his legs clearly bent in an unnatural way, with firefighters sifting through rubble beneath him, attempting to free someone else. Kerlee succumbed to his injuries in the hospital two days after the collapse; his parents at his side.
I always think about Tim Kerlee also, helping to direct the rescue efforts from his vantage despite his clearly crushed pelvis. Not all the ones that died had that chance/choice. I do think that most Aggies in his place would do the same.
I remember watching on the news the reaction of UT students as they learned of this terrible tragedy. As far as I can remember there has always been a rival between Texas A&M and UT, and each side performed ceremonies and boasted of how they were going to beat the other team. It was all in the spirit of college football, but it was so touching when the UT students' reactions were of crying and tears, and the rival between the two universities was suddenly overshadowed by the feeling of loss of fellow students (in the broad sense).
my dad had 2 friends who passed away in this tragic accident. my mother and my father were in college at this time. it's so crazy how things can escalate from a fun gathering to a gravesite so soon.
As someone with HSE background, this is a typical case of ignoring near misses. Several minor injuries and two non-lethal collapses should have flashed a red light with someone at the University management and get the kids a proper civil engineer, I am sure many of the alumni would proudly assume this role. It could even be a proper semester project for a group of civil engineer students under the supervision of a skilled professional. The kids and people who supported them with equipment and material are not to blame, we have all been there, youthful enthusiasm, giving yourself for a common cause and having fun, heck the event sounds great, I would have certainly participated if I was a student. I work in the medium / high voltage grid industry and we always encourage our fitters to pro-actively report near misses and safety concerns and never punish those who admit they made a mistake when they report such a near miss. The harder part was to educate the old school managers that near misses are not there to blame someone, but rather to look into how to make things different as to prevent a more tragic reoccurrence
As a HSE guy you would not have wanted to be there surrounded by hundreds of wound up semi-drunk frat and corps jocks. I live thirty minutes away and they were an nussance clear out here.
I am a TAMU graduate and can tell you that this was a case of worse than ignoring near misses. Rather, it was a case of active ignorance of the problems and previous incidents, some of which resulted in death and severe injuries. This is a classic example of the consequences of "group-think".
@@highping1786 maybe not now, but back in my college days, I was a wild child myself, many a stupid ideas were pulled through...TBH, it was the fatality investigations over the years that have taught me sense and responsibility, nasty stuff, should be part of the education system, you don't realise the severity until you experience and see it first hand.
Every year, A&M people talked about how the bonfire was a case of pushing luck and that it was a miracle there wasn't a disaster. And every year, people naturally wanted to make the bonfire a little more incredible and push their luck a little further. This disaster was 100% the university not being the adult in the room.
@@RandomAxeOfKindnessI agree. And why they wouldn’t have some of there own civil engineering students supervised by professors involved in the build is astonishing!
As an Aggie. currently living in College Station, I can’t put into words what this video means to me and, I’m certain, all of the Aggie family. My father, mother, aunts, and uncle were all there that day. My uncle lost one of his Corps buddies. Here.
It’s not surprising given A&M is a quite unusual school. They have a tradition for literally everything, so when one of those traditions ends in tragedy, they’re gonna go all out on the memorial
It's designed as a memorial should be but rarely is: remembering those lost instead of the designer's art installation. Most poignant I've seen. Well done, A&M.
@@witchyflowerchild7201 Yes, we do... And, Did.. I hate that the end of the on-campus bonfire ended with this.. If I had been on the pile and perished, I would have absolutely have wanted it to continue.. I'm pretty sure the 12 who died would as well.. And the injured..
It didn't hit me until I saw the memorial. Whoever designed that is wonderful - having the portals face towards their hometown - that got me in the feels.
I made a fort as a kid by removing the center stack of a woodpile. The neighbor and I were in it when his dad walked over to get us for lunch and as he got near, it started collapsing. He ran over and held it open as 4 or 5 cords of wood heaved-in and rained down on us. If he hadn't have walked over, I probably wouldn't be here to write this. That only gave my friend 10 more years, he was gone before he was 20. Slid on an icy curve into an oncoming semi. I've been thinking about him a lot lately, not sure why, he's been gone for a long time. Can't really forget when my wallet chain for decades has been his goth necklace. His parents buried him on the same curvy road along the river so you go past both spots all the time. Sux hard. F.
He is probably just letting you know that he is thinking about you as well. It's cool that you have his necklace as your wallet chain. RIP to your friend. Great timing Dad!!
Strange how a lifeforce can resonate through the decades like that. My Father and my best friend both had their ashes scattered on a landmark I can see pretty much anywhere I go. F.
As a Texan living close to College Station, this was a horrible tragedy for so many. These students did this for love, for pride and for heartfelt tradition. So many immediately started to condemn everyone associated with it. You are the first one I've seen that gave it the gravity and sensitivity it deserves as well as honor the spirit of those we lost. Thank you.
"...These students did this for love, for pride and for heartfelt tradition...". They're supposed to be getting an education! What part of getting an education involves participating and dying in a dangerously stupid "tradition"?
@@MrShobarcollege/university isn’t just about the education. It’s a whole experience. For many, it’s the first time they live away from home and start taking steps to adulthood. It’s about building a community, a network, and exploring new interests. For a lot of kids, it’s their first time meeting people who have the same educational interests or hobbies that they do. Lots of schools have rituals or traditions that have nothing to do with education but are time-honoured college experiences, like streaking at the football game. Nobody went into the bonfire wanting anyone to get hurt or die. This channel is full of people who miscalculated the danger in a situation until it was too late. Humans often learn through experiences. It’s tragic that so many young people died or were seriously injured trying to participate in a long-held tradition.
That's a pretty lame a $ $ tradition. Kill a bunch of tree, and create pollution by setting those trees on fire while partying and getting drunk. That's love and pride? No, that's pretty immature and totally lame. What end goal is that "tradition" supposed to accomplish?
@@MrShobar Ummm... College is preperatory for the real world and should be treated as such. Engineering is learned by doing this. So is teamwork. Are those not valuable traits to have for the real world? You sound like the new generation. Devoid of understanding these are necessary learned traits. Yes! Do these safely but, they are by no means not education.
@MrShobar If you ever have the chance, I hope you can visit the A&M campus, talk to students, and learn of the traditions they honor and why. It can be quite mind opening if one is capable of it. Look up any video on the Aggie Muster. You might take another look. Be safe!
One of my favorite things about your channel, is that you individually name the deceased in these tragedies. It's a really personal touch and I appreciate it.
Based on the previous non-lethal collapses, this was an accident waiting to happen. Lack of oversight KILLS people. The account about the voices growing fainter and fainter as time went on gave me chills. The memorial for the dead is really beautiful and touching, though.
If you go through each portal you can read about each of the 12 Aggies that passed. To me, the story of Tim Kerlee Jr. is the most inspiring, as he exemplified not only what it means to be an Aggie, but to be a friend to those around him. He personified John 15:13 by willingly giving up his life such that he could help point out others that were in need of rescue. No more fitting way to be remembered as the 12th Aggie to die on that night.
Well, we can all appreciate the growing nanny-state providing ever more oversight. And for every incident like this, where it may well be needed, there are hundreds of banal things where it is not (but we get it anyway).
@@BuddyLee23 "oversight is only important for the 0.01% of times when things go horribly wrong so I shouldn't have to be bothered by it in everyday life"
I met Chris Breen about 2 months before this happened. We played on a baseball team together in Austin Texas. I remember he didn't show up for a game one night and I was bent out of shape because we needed him bad. The other guys saId he was working on the Aggie Bonfire. Well, at the next game we got word that he was one of the 12 killed on the stack that night. It really hit us hard and put into perspective how fragile life is. Chris had actually graduated about 2-3 years earlier from A&M and went back to help with the build every year.
@@MrShobar Indeed, it was. However, events like this, Triangle Shirtwaist, Our Lady of Angels, Worcester Cold Storage, The Station, Coconut Grove, and an incredibly long list of fires in the US are taught specifically *because* they demonstrate, in spectacular and horrifying ways, how decisions great and small, during design, construction, maintenance or remodel, can have catastrophic consequences. As this video describes, subsequent Aggie bonfires have been closely monitored and highly regulated. Other major fires have instigated massive changes in building codes, construction materials and techniques, and fundamental updates to firefighting operations. Sadly, history shows that it often takes numerous deaths to affect change.
Because most firefighters are actually 'Fire and RESCUE' - they often spend even more time cutting people out of car wrecks than they do putting out fires. This is exactly the kind of thing they would get called out to...@@MrShobar
Actually Andy; this and every Fascinating Horror video, exemplifies the fact that nothing is more valuable in this temporal life than to know you are eternally "right with God" by grace thru faith apart from the human effort(s) of religion e.g., traditions, rites, rituals and ceremony [Gal 2 v16]. For these are the very efforts God rejects [Mark 7]. *Truth is a stubborn thing.*
As an Aggie, thank you for this thoughtful, detailed, and unbiased analysis. I particularly appreciate the care you took to show the historical background behind the tradition, as that was a key component in understanding the importance of the event.
A friend of mine was a football player at TA&M when this happened. He said that the sheer scale of the rescue was stunning. The collapse was almost 80 feet across, and there were people working rescue at literally every single square foot of edge, constantly moving and taking away debris. He said that when he finally stopped moving, it was because there were too *many* hands and the structural engineers had to slow people down or risk further collapse. He said standing in that waiting crowd was like being in a bee hive, everyone humming and pointing toward every sound so they could move toward the call.
As a current Aggie student I was surprised to see a video documenting this, and I am grateful that a channel of your size and reach has shared information about this fairly obscure tragedy, which a fair amount of people outside the sphere of A&M have never heard about. One of the things that makes Texas A&M a truly special place is that there are now Aggies such as myself who were not even alive yet when this tragedy occurred, but, much like with other traditions we have such as Silver Taps and Muster, we take the time to honor our fellow Aggies who have passed away for whatever the reason may be, even if we never knew them, and Bonfire '99 is no exception. In this busy world, it makes me stop and be grateful for life and the friendship of other Aggies and to not take it for granted.
The year 2000 was my freshman year at Texas A&M. The melancholy mood was palpable all across the campus. Everyone was haunted by the memory of the collapse and those lost in this tragedy. You could see it written across everyone's faces and in their mannerisms. Everyone was also bummed by the loss of one of the most prized traditions. The bonfire was forbidden by the University. Everyone was informed that if they attempted to make an off campus bonfire, they would be expelled. There were still off campus bonfires made, however, and they grew larger as time went by.
@umadbra Actually, it was televised nationwide. The people of your small, isolated village may not have known about it, but the rest of the country did. It is pretty sad when a person such as you displays such a blatant disregard for human life. You should be ashamed of yourself.
@@harryjones5260the new bonfires are supervised and managed by actual engineering firms and they’re designed without the key faults of the prior bonfires. The reason it is not done on campus is because the university’s insurance won’t allow it.
I am Aggie class of 2000 and have watched your channel since the beginning. Thank you for the extremely thorough research and thoughtful presentation of the Aggie traditions. The Aggie bonifre collapse happened on my senior ring day, the day I was scheduled to pick up my senior ring. It was a somber day and I will never forget the silence all across campus that week. After we met in Reed Arena and the structural collapse was explained, everyone in the arena just sat there silently when they were done. After a few minutes the crowd spontaneously began to sing Amazing Grace together and hold hands and cry. I have mixed feelings about the continuation of bonfire off campus, but I graduated and left, so I'm not involved in it anymore. TAMU is one amazing school and it's a privilege to have graduated from there.
Given the lax "oversight", I'm far more surprised that the bonfires lasted 90+ years without killing anyone than that one of eventually claimed several lives, especially given the seeming size of them.
For the first 70+ years, the engineering students built the bonfire. Then A&M allowed fraternities on campus in the 1970s, and the frat boys gradually started to take over the job.
They were h u g e. I got to see several Aggie bonfires in the 70's. As a child I was amazed at the size of the fires but the crowds singing was the best most memorable moments for me.
There wasn’t “lax oversight”. Engineering students and staff literally engineered it. The collapse was caused by a faulty centerpole. Student Bonfire is still an active organization, and we still build and burn Bonfire every year. The only difference is that the university doesn’t officially condone it, nor has it been held on campus since the Fall.
I worked on the bonfire build when I was a student at A&M in the 70s. I remember hearing about the collapse on my way to work that morning. It shocked me to my core. One thing many people do not know is that the Aggie student body is known as the "12th Man." And it is ironic that there were 12 Aggie students killed in the collapse.
It's amazing that the tradition lasted as long as it did before there were fatalities. As a Texan I vaguely remember the incident but had forgotten about it until now. Thanks for covering it.
I requested this one! I’m so glad you could get around to it, Tysm! One detail you left out is the football game itself. As you mentioned, the bonfire was traditionally burned the night before A&M played UT (followed by midnight yell). My dad was a student there at the time, and he said it was the most intense and emotional football game he’d ever been to. The footage from the half time show still makes him tear up. Instead of playing their usually fight songs, the A&M cadets marched in a silent “T” formation, and the UT band played “Amazing Grace.” It was huge moment of Texas unity given how intense their rivalry was. The Longhorns still put up a good fight, but the Aggies beat them 16-20!
I was a freshman at the University of Texas when this happened, and it still breaks my heart all these years later. We were stoked for the game. The rivalry was in full swing, students from both schools were talking trash to each other, we were pranking each other's campus; it was just a jovial time and both schools were looking forward to the game between the biggest rivalry of the Big 12. The night that Bonfire collapsed, that rivalry went away. A bunch of students from UT made the drive from Austin to College Station to help. We held a fundraiser. They were our rivals, but they were also our Texas siblings. I still get goosebumps when I think about the reading of the Roll Call for the Absent after it happened. "Softly call the muster, Let comrade answer, “Here!” Their spirits hover ‘round us: As if to bring us cheer! Mark them "present" in our hearts, We’ll meet some other day. There is no Death, but Life Eterne For heroes such as they!" God Bless, my Aggie brethren. (We're still gonna kick your butts when we join the SEC next year!)
Another thing to mention is the football game that happened immediately after the collapse. Our greatest rivals, the University of Texas at Austin, held a memorial service at halftime that was deeply moving to Aggies everywhere. There is a recording on youtube. Texas A&M went on to narrowly upset Texas that day. The final minutes of that game may be the most emotional in the entire history of Texas A&M. Edit: Link to the halftime performance ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9Bx_uQ7S790.htmlsi=ZWgIpr-TWoQRxZhW
@@sunflowers730so many european soccer games have continued after deadly riots. In Brazil they literally continued a soccer match after a ref was beheaded. But yea, take any opportunity to bash America. 🤦
@@sunflowers730@sunflowers730 Same in France, we have our next football game against England after the 16 novembre paris attack, we didn't cancel it and the english sang La Marseillaise wirh us it was very moving
I am a Former Student (there are no Ex-Aggies) and worked on the Bonfire in the mid-70’s. Whether loading logs onto a flatbed in some landowner’s fields or wiring up bundles of branches for placement on the structure, there was a massive sense of Teamwork and Camaraderie. I felt a lot of pride as the burn took place, joining in the singing and hoping that the outhouse would stand until after midnight. I was devastated when I heard of this tragedy, even 20 years after I had left the University. This was an excellent synopsis, very respectfully done. Thank You.
I'm so glad you covered this. I remember this at the time, but this is the first comprehensive video I've seen covering the whole thing. 25 years ago, time flies.
A good friend of mine was supposed to work the "stack" at the time it collapsed. He decided to go drinking instead, which probably saved his life. He did lose a number of friends though. It was a truly horrendous accident.
In the Netherlands at the Scheveningen beach, with new years it used to be a tradition between two neighborhoods to build the biggest campfire. As you can imagine, the competitiveness lead to the bonfires getting crazy high, until a few years ago it was a very windy night that led cinders being blown all over a large residential neighborhood. Luckily nobody died, but it started a lot of small fires that easily could have gotten out of hand.
I always found it eerie that 12 died that day. Their football team refers to their football fans as the “12th Man”. To have that be the number of deaths always let it stick out in my mind. I remember hearing about it as a kid, & the number 12 just haunts me a bit when I think about it.
I thought American football has way more than 11 players on the pitch like 15 or something? I thought 12th man was a football thing. Maybe there is only 11 in American football?
@@arostwocents In Texas A&M tradition, the 12th man refers to the student body/fanbase at football games to "symbolize their 'readiness, desire, and enthusiasm' to take the field if needed". In actuality there's only 11 from each team on the field playing.
I've never watched one of these videos and not only remembered the event from the news, but was there when it happened so this was very eerie and had a rush of tough memories associated. Thank you for the respectfulness done to this story, especially after reading some of these comments. I went to A&M the year bonfire fell; I had friends who participated in Cut (they'd get up at 5am - I often had intentions to go, but it was too early, and I was often up too late), I had friends who were supposed to be building that night but the schedule changed so in addition to knowing most of those who died they had survivor's guilt of thinking it should have been them. I remember those cranes being instead used to help lift white-sheet covered bodies. One of the things I remember that is bizarre and surreal is that we had been watching the build before the collapse on the TV - there were a lot of us that were just heading to bed when we got word it fell. Dozens from each dorm filed out with their hard hats to go help but at first it didn't feel real; what do you mean it fell? We literally just saw it and it was fine. Yes, it absolutely was a ridiculous tradition that got out of control but at the time it was something the students took pride in being a part of and really did think they were taking seriously even as yes they often were exhausted and sometimes drinking. One of the sayings often tossed around at the time was 'from the outside looking in you can't understand it, from the inside looking out you can't explain it' - I know it can be difficult to look back at the student body at the time (me included) being absolutely livid that it was being shut down. It felt like a slap in the face to the kids who died even though looking back now as an adult it makes perfect sense. I know it can be easy to be dismissive but these were literally 12 kids killed - even if every single one of them was drunk and a jerk (which they weren't) that is still a tragedy. Looking back we can see the complacency, looking from the outside we can see why continuing the tradition feels disrespectful - but at the time, NOT continuing the tradition felt disrespectful. Having the crowds of reporters swarm the campus making it seem inevitable due to being nothing but drunk kids without supervision felt disrespectful. So yes, people in the comments, while I do understand that it feels obvious - please be mindful these lives were kids. They were teenagers, and had their entire future ahead of them. And even for those of us who didn't personally know those 12 - it was teenagers who had classes with them, teenagers who were hurt, teenagers who had to deal with the guilt of being part of something that crushed other teenagers they had known and interacted with families of. And being able to look back now, YES the school absolutely should have not let it get that big; they absolutely should have had processes and supervision in place to prevent something exactly like this from happening.
You said it perfectly. I was class of 2002 & heavily involved in Bonfire. What you said was true about the schedule change. Our dorm was supposed to be out there that night but they had changed the schedule just two days before it collapsed. I dealt with the weight of that guilt. Thank you for explaining it so well. Some of these comments are just 🤦🏼♀️ Luckily it’s not the majority of comments. We were blinded by the fact that it was an Aggie tradition; one that had been going on for decades. We couldn’t even imagine in our teenage brains that something even REMOTELY this tragic could happen. And that Aggie saying is still so true. It’s very hard to explain to someone who wasn’t there. How much it all meant to everyone. Still saddens me that this happened. I just wish they could’ve had more oversight. My much younger siblings graduated from A&M. It’s just always been so different there without bonfire. I wish it would’ve been safely done 😓❤️🙏🏻🕊👍🏻
Excellent comment. It is hard for people sometimes to see past the pride of a thing when they're in it, and there is nothing wrong with that as a moral issue; pride is a powerful force and if it is in something that brings good- a community that values itself and others- it is a good and decent thing. I find your journey, in terms of how your feelings on it, to be incredibly understandable. As kids- and they were kids- and you were a kid- while we understand "death" I don't know we truly appreciate, or can appreciate, the utter tragedy and permanence of loss. It's only as we get older and experience a bit more of life and live the "and then what happens" of that life that we can recognize that losses do not end with the moment, they do not end in a few weeks, years, or decades. They cause tremendous, lasting and new damage for everyone who cared about the people who passed and for the people who care for those people. The actual near-term impact of the tragedy is just the beginning of a harm that will continue to harm for a very, very, very long time. There are Moms, Dads, brothers, sisters, never-met nephews and nieces, friends never known who live in a world adjacent to those hurt by this who are also shaped to some degree, and it is with them every day in a circle that grows and grows and grows until one day, very far into the future, it fades away. You get older, you have kids of your own; you pray that the tragedy of a life cut short young doesn't touch you. You appreciate it more when it doesn't and pray your luck holds.
These normally don't make me too torn up, but orienting the memorial statues to their hometowns really got me. Thank you for your well researched videos as always.
I'm an Aggie. Class of 2004. I happened to see the 1999 Bonfire Stack under construction, as a high schooler visiting the campus. Someone from the dorm I was staying at took a tour group out to the edge of the Polo Field. I recall that someone in the group looked at all the people climbing around on the logs without harnesses, and saying "that looks dangerous". Which our guide basically dismissed by saying that we'd done it for 90 years, and so far, so good.
I am a grad of University of Texas and I am saddened that this happened. School rivialery put aside this was a very big blow to those who call Texas A&M home
I clearly remember this as if it happened yesterday. Thank you from Aggie country for the thoughtful presentation of a painful tradgey. The names of each that lost their lives being read out was a kind touch. Again Thank You for a truly thoughtful remembrance of that sad day.
Omg it sounds like a deadly game of Jenga - knowing which logs to remove without the logs around it collapsing. I'd never heard of this tragedy but that's why I love this channel. He explains why these things happen in an informative yet respectful way. Very sad state of affairs 😔
This one hits way closer to home than most of these short documentaries do. Texas A&M grad here 😢. Wasn’t a student when this happened but did attend the candlelight vigil held at the memorial at 2:42AM on the 10th anniversary of the collapse to honor those who lost their lives.
It's so hard when a classmate dies, even if wasn't someone you knew well, it really hits you hard and stays with you... I can hardly imagine what it would be like to lose so many students all at once.
Agreed. Almost 30 years ago when I was in 3rd grade, a girl from another 3rd grade class who i didn’t know well, but saw her on a regular basis, was killed in a house fire. The following week the school held a memorial service for her. It was such a strange feeling.
I'm an Aggie sophomore right now, and I've actually been to the Bonfire memorial this past November 18 at 2:42 AM. It was very somber, and when they read the names of the deceased, we all responded in kind. When we were dismissed, everyone walked off in silence and didn't speak until we were at our respective dorms.
There is something so captivating about this channel, Fascinating Horror. The classic tune, Glass Pond, the gentleman who narrates and the overall delivery of the stories exceed every similar channel on youtube. Thank you FH for giving us this amazing content to enjoy. ❤❤❤❤❤ I greatly appreciate your weekly efforts.
Our narrator SURE sounds like Baltar from Battlestar Galactica (2nd gen), but as a retired audio engineer, what could I know? :) The work here is just amazing and caring.
lol omg, I have an old cassette recording my bro did of the audio portion of one of the 1976 Battlestar Galactica TV series. That was our "streaming" back in the day 😅 And I do a little voice-over work that is recorded on 6.0.5 Garageband and would make a pro like you want to claw your ears out it's so bad. 😂😂😂@@htos1av
I always feel for the rescuers and responders of disasters like these. I cannot imagine the trauma that these poor people faced given that they were only students and on top of that the victims being friends and fellow students. My heart goes out to them and the families.
My father is a die hard longhorn, but wells up with tears when he talks about the aggies and the 12th man: always ready to serve. Thank you for this video and helping us to remember those lost.
my brother is a freshman at a&m this year in the corps, and the bonfire memorial is a massive deal. i'm glad that they had so many people willing to help on the scene. it's a massive deal for not just aggies, but texans in general, so i thank you for covering it!
i want to add to the Aggie ring tradition thing. there is a rite of passage called "ring dunking". a person drops their ring into a pitcher of beer, and then they chug the pitcher, and are supposed to catch the ring in their mouths. a significant number of people end up swallowing their ring.
It's amazing how avoidable almost every accident covered on this channel was. Human stupidity is remarkably dangerous but does make for fascinating storytelling.
I dont think this disaster showcases either though. It's incredible that different students have done this over a hundred times and not had a terrible collapse until '99.
@@SubvertTheState - It was only a matter of time as the stack kept growing every year. When you need local companies to donate cranes to make your bonfire.....it's gone too far.
@@SubvertTheStateonce you start using cranes to build a bonfire its starting to become stupid , they pushed their luck thinking they could build a bigger and bigger bonfire , it was always going to end in disaster, common sense went out the window in favour of bragging rights , the people allowing this stupidity to get to the stage cranes are used all have blood on their hands.
I’ve been watching this channel for a while now, but have to admit I was somewhat startled this came under your radar. I graduated from A&M in 1991, 8 years prior to the collapse and enjoyed going out to the bonfire every year I was there. As a student I didn’t know the bonfire was ENTIRELY student built, and rather assumed there was some professional supervision. After the collapse happened, my dad asked me: “did you ever work on that?” I just laughed. I would never have considered it although a few of my male friends worked on the chop (clearing trees). I’m surprised the school had let something like that continue on campus WITHOUT some sort of required professional input- particularly in our growing litigious society. All things said, the moratorium of the bonfire was inevitable. A sad tragic ending to what was originally made in fun.
I met my wife in the mid-1980’s in grad school at TAMU. I’d heard so much about bonfire and the outhouse atop the stack constructed of stolen Austin City Limit signs and the party atmosphere around the event. The video doesn’t address how to get a densely-packed, 80-foot tall stack of freshly cut logs to burn. A truck full of jet fuel hosed the stack down an hour before they lit it. The fire was amazing but this was a tragedy that could have been avoided.
I'm a Texas A&M graduate. The date is November 18, 1999 at 2:42 am. Not the 19th. It's ingrained into most Aggie's minds forever. I'm disappointed that this very basic fact is incorrect.
I'd like to express the amount of respect I have for the fact that you read the name of each victim who lost there life. It's such a subtle, yet massive way to give humanity to the story rather than it just being a story. Reading their names aloud means it was read aloud each time this video is played. I commend the sentiment..
I’ve been watching this channel for years and I’m so glad you covered this! I went to Texas A&M and you covered our traditions very well. This was such a horrible tragedy and we still hold the vigil at 2:42am every November 18th
I know it was a horrible tragedy, but I couldn't help laughing at the part where some students just straight-up stole an entire barn from some poor farmer.
In Sweden we have May Pyres... and~ I've NEVER seen one stacked. It's just a great big fire. That's the point. Not to shame the dead, but that stacking idea seems like a lot of extra work for not much payoff even if nothing goes wrong, TBH.
Better to just let a pyre be a pyre. Start making them more elaborate = prestige gets involved, and with no proper safety protocols, it's not about If an accident is going to happen, without When, and How bad. Such a sad, preventable case.
I had to do a architecture project on the Bonfire Memorial two years ago. We were supposed to explain all of the design choices that were made. It was the first time I went to the memorial, and it was surreal. I'm not big into Aggie Traditions, but I always appreciated this place--as well as things like Muster and Silver Taps. I cry very easily, and I can't even think about traditions like these without being on the verge of tears. They are just beautiful.
As an Aggie, thank you for doing this well. The campus holds a memorial every year on the 19th at 2:42am at the Memorial site to remember the fallen and it is a powerful event. Thousands come every year despite the time and no matter weather.
Thanks for covering this one, FH. I was fifteen at the time and remember this being all over the news. I know there's a Charlie Minn documentary about this tragedy but his work's a bit exploitative for my taste. You show a lot more compassion and decency. There's nothing done for cheap shocks here. You handle tender subjects with care and responsibility (including the Hartford Circus Fire, which my grandmother survived), and it's much appreciated.
Wow. Thank you for covering this topic. I was heavily involved in Aggie Bonfire while in college. I’ve been a fan of this channel for some time so it’s quite surreal to see something on here that I was heavily involved in. I actually worked on the one in 1999 & had many, many friends that were involved in Bonfire as well. Our dorm had been scheduled to be out there the night it fell, but they had a last minute schedule change just a couple of days before. One of my very close friends was on the stack when it fell. He injured his back badly, but he survived. He went through so much physical and mental anguish afterwards. It was such an awful time 😓 I went out there shortly after it collapsed, & the pictures just don’t do it justice. The stack, even slumped over as it was, was SO huge. Then when word passed through the crowd that people were trapped underneath, you just heard everyone in the crowd silently sobbing. It was eerily quiet. It was horrible because all of us wanted to get out there and start moving those logs off the stack but we couldn’t because of the risk of collapse. We just stood there helpless, so helpless, crying and holding one another. It still sends a pain through my heart when I hear or see images from that night. Bonfire was such a good thing, in that it brought so many students & former students, all together for a common purpose. You make strong bonds when you’re out there sweating & bleeding with each other while cutting down trees & building stack. Then the sense of accomplishment when that fire finally burned was so amazing. Looking back as an adult though, how I wish there would’ve been more oversight so that such a tragedy would’ve never happened. 😥 FTAC ‘02 👍🏻
Former Neely Bonfire and '21 alumni here! Can confirm it's still going stronger than ever. I treasured the friends I made in Student Bonfire but by junior year, had tapped out mainly because I had no time to study or spare time on the weekends during fall-mester. Realized after graduation that I really only stuck around as long as I did for the bonding experience and a sense of FOMO, since it was the only friend group I fit into from day one of them helping me unpacking in my freshmen dorm and being invited to my first kickback. Also we got turnt the fuck up during Afterburn, and the entire next spring semester (a.k.a. Party-mester) was one long series of parties that no one wanted to miss, thrown by alternating Bonfire crews and dedicated to celebrating all the back-breaking shit that went into a successful BTHOB, and it genuinely felt as rewarding as it was unhealthy 😅. After my first Burn, there really was nothing that meant more to us than waking up hungover as shit only to find that our hopes came alive and we'd won the LSU game after falling asleep during the 7 goddamn overtimes. And honestly I'm certain that everyone who attended bonfire that night has that memory carved in their heart. And the collapse was, and never will be taken lightly. Every year we would walk to the memorial site in silence and pay respects to each monument, and remain for the entire service. There would be official meetings and consultations pertaining to maintaining the structure, safety, and scope (upper leadership only tho). If weather was bad, Cut and Stack could be cancelled. Fish were never allowed to cut anything down without supervision, only upper leadership could be in a certain perimeter if stack, and everyone had to wear PPE to be allowed on-site. And as frat-guy material as our Crew Chiefs, Brown Pots and Red Pots were, their first priority is ALWAYS taking every measure to prevent another Collapse. People still got fucking hurt tho, push-up hazing was a thing, insects were a bitch, slips/trips/falls/cuts/grazes, and we literally had "medical fish" who carried stacked first aid kits. But of course there's only so much you can do when someone blisters the fuck out of their hands with an axe, falls into tangled brush, gets devoured by ants when staggering a log, or decides to show up hungover/dehydrated in the middle of the woods without telling anyone and doesn't drink a sip of water til lunch. Fortunely no ambulances were ever called to the cut/stack site in my time, but I have seen at least two people end up in casts for fractures for one reason or another. All in all, when it was fun it was fun, when it got haze-y it got haze-y, when it hurt it hurt, and when you were down or alone, there was always the spirit of bonfire tying you to your crew, your olds, your Chiefs, and really, your new family. And that's really the thing that to this day compels people to throw caution (and environmental consciousness) to the wind just to Build/Burn the Hell Out of Bonfire. And if that sounds a little culty, you're wrong. It's a LOT culty 😂 Any true Aggie will gladly tell you that A&M itself is one big cult and they're absolutely right, but if you ask them what the cultiest section of the student body is, it's Student Bonfire hands down. It's not a noble org, nor is it one to be worshipped, it's just a dangerous thing continually made semi-safeish to uphold a tradition and foster an unusual kind of camaraderie, no if, ands, or buts. [P.S. A lot of people wonder where we get all the wood, it comes from local landowners who volunteer land for Bonfire to clear the old brush and trees from. They get free labor, we get free wood, and Mother Nature shits herself when it all gets burnt down in the middle of a county-wide arid conditions Burn Notice. As a band-aid the majority of us take part in the university-sponsored Big Event and Replant, which are dedicated to planting trees and restoring land for local landowners and university partners, likely including some who've volunteered land for Bonfire in the past.]
Man it really sucks when celebrations and events turn into a tragedy be it the fault of the participants or the result of someone else in the past (like when a building is poorly designed and part of it collapses during a party) RIP to those that passed away from this accident.
How horrible. Those poor souls who were trapped and calling for help. Dear Lord. The memorial is beautiful and it is a nice tribute by you naming those who died. May they all Rest in Peace.
I heard about this after a huge bonfire (48 metres high, 157 feet) caused trouble in the Dutch seaside town of Scheveningen in 2019. Not a collapse but an uncontrolled fire with fortunately no casualties. They had bigger bonfires every year and it was mentioned that one might collapse like happened with the Aggie collapse.
The faculty allowed these giant bonfires to be built without the involvement of engineers? They missed a great educational opportunity. The fact there had been no such tragedy previously is nothing short of a miracle. Thankyou FH for another great episode.
The bonfire was traditionally built by seniors in the civil engineering program called “Red Pots”. As per tradition, there were no blueprints, so instructions on how to build the bonfire were passed down orally
Thank you for posting in your video the names of the people who passed from the incident. Taking the time to do this really felt like you cared about those involved and weren't simply concerned about making revenue from a documentary. Much respect, friend.
As soon as I heard how the bonfire was being constructed, the inevitable impending doom hit home, and the question that sprang to mind was, where was the structural engineer needed to build it safely? A haunting tragedy I am unlikely to forget. RIP to the 12 students lost, and my thoughts go out to those injured too
Most “Red Pots”, the students chosen to build the bonfire, were seniors in the engineering program. Traditionally there were no blueprints, so instructions on how to build the bonfire were passed down orally. Somehow they made it 90 years with even sketchier designs without incident. It was a horrible and shocking tragedy.
I was attending another school but had friends who were engineering students at TAMU at the time. I remember worrying about them when I heard about the collapse because I always believed the engineering students and their professors were in charge of planning and construction. It’s always been surprising to me that there wasn’t better oversight given the strong engineering program there and that it was a University event.
In years prior to the collapse, the stack was constructed entirely by the Corps Of Cadets with experienced Seniors (Red Pots) overseeing construction. No non-Corp personnel, or "Non-Regs", were allowed on the stack, and no drinking was allowed. This apparently changed during the 90s to allow Non-Regs, and whatever else, on the stack. We see the sad result....
The verbal knowledge shifted. I worked the bonfire for 4 years in the early 80s. There was *extensive* verbal knowledge of how to build it,, passed year to year. Yet when it fell years later I found that the new verbal knowledge had as standard practices many things that were severe no-nos in the 80s, such as shoving logs from one layer between logs of the lower layer. Just shifted over time. Lesson: turn verbal knowledge into written, and reviewed, knowledge. Training and supervision was heavily present, from older students and by "pots", ranks of student construction supervisors. Freshmen were restricted to ground, sophomores could go up a bit, etc. Even things like running the log lifting teams (students pulling ropes on pullies) had specific terms and practices.
They're just lucky it didn't hold out until they lit it before it fell over. Imagine how many would have died, not just from crush damage but burning and smoke inhalation. Especially given the huge attendance.
@@okeydokey3120 like the other commenter said, given how tall this thing was, it would have spilled burning debris over an absolutely massive area, on top of any injuries caused by people panicking and trying to get away.
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way - because it’s a compliment from my perspective. As much as I love watching your videos, I really love sleeping to them. I’m super picky about what I’ll listen to at night and everything about your content is perfect.
I was living in Houston when that happened. Aggie Bonfire was a huge deal for students and alumni. So was "Yell Practice" (pep rally). One thing worth mentioning is that students and faculty from the University of Texas, the rivals, went to help with the aftermath. Very good video. Good job.
I'm just as interested in how the students apparently made off with an entire barn once they allegedly disassembled it, as the actual 1999 collapse. I hope there's some truth to that because, as sad as the collapse in 1999 was, the image of 1950s era Aggies showing up, tearing down a barn, then leaving is just hilarious to me. Then again this vid goes into a ton of details that the only other coverage I've seen (which was Modern Marvels) didn't bother going into and just gave a surface level overview
Modern Marvels did mention that the lumber used in the collapse year was more irregular in shape than the wood sourced in the previous years, meaning it couldn’t be packed as tightly which contributed to the instability of the structure.
Amish can raise a barn with a group of people pretty quick. There's a story that Shakespeare's company disassembled a whole theater that belonged to someone else and stole all the parts, reassembling it elsewhere for their new theater.
One in four students at A&M is an engineering student. It's where you go in Texas to study construction. This makes the disaster even harder to comprehend. There were plenty of knowledgeable people on campus, but they either weren't involved in planning or were not listened to.
Thanks for covering this little known accident. As a kid in the 90s I remember when this happened, and it's hard to find information about it. To give context, just a few years before was the Bonsai Pipeline waterslide collapse, then the Columbine massacre, then this. It was a lot of tragedy involving school aged young people seemingly happening back to back.
I’m from Texas when this happened it was such a big deal because the bonfires were a huge tradition and everyone wanted to go to at least one in your life and now like no one talks about it I wonder if the kids at A&M today even know about the bonfires. They had talked about keeping them going on private property but I haven’t heard about that in a while
I'm sure they do, and supposedly get professional help now, but a land owner is legally responsible for the people on their property. There might be financial consequences for things like this, insurance raises, etc.
Student Bonfire still happens. And candlelight vigils definitely happen every year at 2:42 am on November 18th (not the 19th as incorrectly stated in the video).
When I first heard about this tragedy on the history channel over fifteen years ago, I was told that there was a special design course created before the collapse that focused on how to build the structure. It is sad when a tradition that is not meant to hurt anyone ends up killing people and thus cannot continue
Moved to college Station the year after the collapse, that was a tough year for everyone not having the bonfire for the first time in so long. A stark reminder of the tradition that was lost.
That happened my freshman or sophomore year when the collapse occurred. I'm from Texas and had an athletic scholarship offer to A&M but went elsewhere. But I had several friends that were there and one of them was injured in the accident. That was a crazy event.
That’s a beautiful and thoughtful memorial. At my school our department lost one of our classmates recently and her memorial service was yesterday. Her brother attended, as did her old colleagues from another city, and it was very meaningful to be able to honor those ties to her hometown and other roots from before we knew her, as the doorways did for these students. My friend was awarded her PhD posthumously and a scholarship was set up in her honor, but it would be nice to someday create a physical memorial as well. I can’t even imagine how devastating it would be to lose 12 classmates at once.
