Bonfire Could Return to Texas A&M, Following $2.1M Settlement
A 1999 accident at Texas A&M University that killed 11 students and one graduate and injured dozens of others ended a 100-year-old campus football tradition known as Bonfire.
But the fire, which grew to bigger and bigger heights before a 60-foot-high stack of logs under construction collapsed a decade ago, may someday return to campus, the state’s governor reportedly has said, despite a $2.1 million settlement by the university and ongoing litigation between defendants.
The university’s interim president, R. Bowen Loftin, cast doubt on that prediction in a written statement today, reports the Houston Chronicle.
Having had the one accident on campus “is something that you can get past,” says Loftin in the statement. “If you did it again, and it happened again, you have no way to excuse yourself.”
A much smaller version of the fire is currently constructed off-campus as part of the school’s football rivalry with the University of Texas at Austin.
