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Bonfire builders broke safety rules
Posted: Wednesday November 24, 1999 09:47 AM
DALLAS (AP) -- A Texas A&M official confirmed that underclassmen were working high on the 40-foot log stack that collapsed last week, a breach of university guidelines. Rusty Thompson, an administrator who previously served as an adviser in building the bonfire stack, said freshmen and sophomores were on the upper levels of the logs. That violates procedures set out in the 1994 "Bonfire Safety Handbook." However, Thompson said he felt comfortable with the safety measures that were in place before last week's collapse that killed 12 people and injured 27 others. "I don't think the fact that there were freshmen or sophomores on the stack was the reason it fell," Thompson said in Wednesday's Dallas Morning News. "Something went wrong somewhere within that stack." About 70 people were stacking the wood tower for the annual bonfire before the university's football game against rival Texas when the pile gave way early Thursday. Eleven A&M students and a recent graduate were killed. Most of the victims were freshmen and sophomores. "I guess if the investigation were to show, just for example, that there was some real poor wiring on the logs, and then we were to say, 'Well maybe we had some people that weren't experienced enough up there,' then yes," Thompson said. "But we have to get those answers before we know what to change," he said. Larry Grosse, a former A&M construction science professor who helped develop some of the safety guidelines, told WFAA-TV he thought the pile collapsed because of a failure to follow safety features. "Sadly, there was not someone overseeing all of this to make sure it was being done," said Grosse, now at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Questions about design and oversight of the bonfire also have prompted the state's engineering board to examine Texas construction law to see whether it applies to A&M's 90-year-old tradition. State and local governments must file plans with the engineering board and arrange for a licensed professional engineer to supervise construction before beginning projects that involve public safety, health or welfare. Jimmy Smith, interim executive director of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, said the annual bonfire could be exempt because volunteers build it and because the law typically applies to public buildings. Texas A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson said he understood the bonfire was exempt from the law. "There is no question that we have been abiding," he said.
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