| | COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Investigators focused Friday on
the 100-foot, spliced-together center pole in the Texas A&M bonfire
pyramid as they tried to figure out why the huge stack of logs
collapsed with a loud crack, killing 12 young people.
|  | | Rescue workers help raise the top part of the broken center pole, which bears the flag of the Corps of Cadets Squadron 17. |
The last two bodies were pulled from the sprawling timber pile
early Friday as grief paralyzed the campus during what is supposed
to be one of the most exciting times of the year: the runup to the
big football game against the University of Texas.
"We're still trying to understand it," Texas A&M President Ray
Bowen said Friday. "We don't have the answers to all the
questions. We're still trying to deal with the shock."
Tim Kerlee Jr., a freshman from Bartlett, Tenn., died Friday,
bringing the death toll to 12.
The building and lighting of the bonfire is a deeply held,
90-year tradition on this football-mad campus of 43,000 about 90
miles northwest of Houston. Early Thursday, the stack came roaring
down in a heap, crushing students who were assembling it.
Bowen on Friday ordered the formation of a task force of
engineers and other experts to look into the disaster "so we'll be
able to analyze all the facts and make decisions to see this horror
never visits our campus again."
Attention turned to the pole that served as the central support
for the massive bonfire. The pole was to have been cut so it was
about 55 feet high, the same height as the stack of 7,000 logs,
each about 10 to 15 feet long. Each log was wired to three others
in a formation that resembled a wedding cake.
The center pole actually was two logs, fused together with bolts
and wire and driven about 10 feet into the ground. Rusty Thompson,
faculty adviser to the bonfire project, said the splice "would be
a focus of the investigation."
Some witnesses said they heard a crack as the structure toppled.
"All of a sudden the center pole snapped, and everything went
with it," said Nathan Knowles, a freshman who was on the stack.
"It took five seconds, if that much, for the whole thing to come
down."
Pieces of the center pole were kept separate from the other logs
as the pile was dismantled.
The bonfire lighting, scheduled for Thanksgiving, was canceled
for just the second time in history. The first time was in 1963,
after President Kennedy's assassination. Whether the tradition will
resume was uncertain. The football game is still on for next Friday
at Texas A&M.
Officials have said about 70 people were stacking the logs
upright in layers when the pile gave way. Some students were hurled
from the structure. Others were trapped in the shifting logs.
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Tragedy victims
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The 11 students and one former student who were killed when a 40-foot
pyramid of logs collapsed:
Miranda Adams, sophomore in biomedical sciences, Santa Fe,
Texas
Christopher Breen, 1997 A&M graduate, Austin, Texas
Michael Ebanks, freshman in aerospace engineering, Carrollton,
Texas
Jeremy Frampton, senior in psychology, Turlock, Calif.
Christopher Lee Heard, freshman in pre-engineering, Houston
Jamie Hand, freshman in environmental design, Henderson, Texas
Lucas Kimmel, freshman in biomedical science, Corpus Christi,
Texas
Bryan McClain, freshman in agriculture, San Antonio
Chad Powell, sophomore in computer engineering, Keller, Texas
Jerry Self, sophomore in engineering technology, Arlington,
Texas
Nathan Scott West, sophomore in oceanography, Bellaire, Texas
Tim Kerlee Jr., freshman, Bartlett, Tenn.
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In addition to the 12 killed -- 11 students and a recent graduate
-- 28 others were injured. Four remained in critical condition
Friday, two of them on life support.
One of the problems in reconstructing the accident is that there
is no formal plan for building the structure.
"A blueprint, as such, does not exist," Thompson said. "It's
really a handed-down tradition. Students teach the next generation
of students what they do."
It was uncertain whether any of the students working on the
bonfire had been drinking alcohol. "I'm not really prepared to
address that but I don't have any evidence of that," school
spokesman Lane Stephenson said.
Clad in overalls, work boots and hard hats, hundreds of students
stoically hauled lumber away in the rescue effort -- displaying the
Aggies' famed "12th Man" spirit in which all are willing to help
out anytime they are needed.
"Our spirit is still here, but it metamorphosized," said Rob
Clarke, an A&M junior. "It used to be a rowdy, vocal kind. Now
it's the solemn and quiet form."
After the last body was removed at 2:05 a.m., almost 24 hours
after the collapse, it took crews only 20 more minutes to clear the
remaining logs, leaving the site a barren circle of dirt.
At one corner of the site, several people placed bouquets of flowers.
Former President George Bush, on campus to address a forum, visited the scene of the accident and noted, "Time has a way of healing."
Campus gardens and benches were deserted. The click of a cadet's
boots could be heard a block away. Still numb, students skipped
classes and pored over newspapers, trying to comprehend the
tragedy.
"There's not many people in classes," said Brad Isbell, a
student in civil engineering. "It's very emotional, real quiet.
Nobody is saying much. It's real somber. Even the professors are
emotional."
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Texas A&M players and coaches mourn tragedy
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