| Texas Tragedy: Faulty Design? | |
| In November 1999, twelve students were killed and more than two dozen injured when a 4-story high pyramid of logs assembled for a pep rally bonfire collapsed at Texas A&M. Was the collapse due to faulty design? This feature from our news archives reviews the findings. |
A key question before the Texas State Engineering Board was whether state construction regulations applied to the wooden bonfire structure which collapsed at Texas A&M.
Former A&M engineering professor Louis Thompson told reporters that the structure was unsafe because it was a fairly loose bunching of upright logs and because the base was too narrow to support the tower.
Investigators looked closely at the 100-foot support pole. Rusty Thompson, the faculty adviser to the bonfire event, said the pole was cracked above and below the centeroint where two timbers are joined.
Twelve students were killed and more than two dozen injured when the 4-story high pyramid of logs assembled for a pep rally bonfire collapsed. Located in College Station, about 90 miles northwest of Houston, Texas A&M is home to one of the largest architecture departments in the United States, with more than 1,800 students enrolled.
| The Texas A&M bonfire is an annual tradition which attracts thousands of spectators. Students spend several weeks building the wooden structure, stacking 7,000 to 8,000 logs 55 to 60 feet high. The structure that collapsed this week was two-thirds completed and stood about 45 feet high. The logs were not ignited. |
The log pile is typically designed in concentric circles like a tiered wedding cake. Layers of logs are wired to a 100 foot long center pole. Serving as the chief support for the structure, the pole is actually two long telephone poles which have been fused together with bolts, wire and metal plates. One end on the pole is driven about 10 feet into the ground.
"It is an engineered structure, designed by engineering students and built by experienced hands with two to three years of experience," alumnus W. Scott Sherman said in a post on the CNN message board. Because the structure is used for a bonfire, the logs are designed to twist inward and collapse as they burn.
About 18 students oversee the bonfire project, examine the log pile to make sure it's not lopsided, and enforce safety measures. About 70 students were on the log pile when it collapsed.
"They died to build it..."
Constructing the bonfire structure requires about 125,000 hours of student labor plus the assistance of a crane and a professional crane operator. The student supervisors are trained by students who have worked on past bonfires. According to faculty advisor Rusty Thompson, no formal training is given by professionals. Also, there is no formal building plan. "A blueprint, as such, does not exist," Thompson told reporters.
Investigators say that the center pole may have snapped in two, or else one of the wires attached to the center pole broke. ''This one slender center pole with everything wired around it -- it just sets up a mobile pile of matchsticks, a house of cards,'' said Lindy Heard, uncle of nineteen-year-old Christopher Heard, who died in the accident.
According to the Texas A&M student newspaper, The Battalion, some witnesses claim that a crane used to build the pyramid may have cracked the center pole. However, other witnesses claim that the pole showed no signs of problems.
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Rescue operations were hazardous. "Every piece of wood in that pile is unstable and every piece of wood that moves affects other pieces of lumber," said Bart Humphries, a spokesman for the College Station Fire Department. It was necessary for cranes to work slowly, removing one log at a time, like "pick-up sticks," Humphries said. |
Posting on the CNN message board, Texas A&M faculty member Dave Baca noted that "There is an inherent danger in building a 55 foot stack of logs and then setting it ablaze with hundreds of gallons of jet fuel."
This is not the first time a bonfire structure collapsed at Texas A&M. A log pile fell about 40 years ago, but there were no injuries Bowen said. A second accident occurred in 1994, when heavy rains made the ground unstable. No one was hurt, and and the structure was rebuilt and ignited as planned. "This is the first time it's been catastrophic," Bowen said.
Students aren't sure whether the university should end the bonfire building tradition. "You know they died to build it," said Kay Barrington, a 21-year-old senior. "They wouldn't want it to just get put away."
