STORM2K

Fire leaves Big Tex a skeletal frame

DALLAS (WFAA-TV) - Flames swiftly engulfed Big Tex Friday morning, leaving only a skeletal frame with his hands still intact.

The State Fair of Texas was celebrating Big Tex's 60th birthday.

Mitchell Glieber, vice president of marketing for the State Fair, said it appears the fire was started by an electrical shortage.

"There's obviously some electronics inside of Big Tex that leads to the ability for his mouth to move when he speaks," Glieber said. "I believe there was an electrical short, but that hasn't been confirmed or investigated."

The fire department was on the scene and able to put the fire out within a matter of minutes. However, those at the scene said it only took around five minutes for the fire to quickly engulf the 52-foot figure.

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Quoting Fair Park, TX on their Facebook page: "Fear not. Like a phoenix, Big Tex will rise again."

RIP Big Tex. See you next year.

Noooooooooooo

I wonder. Do they repair or rebuild from the ground up? I first saw Big Tex in 1972. Gosh, he was tall. LOL

With nothing but the frame and the arms, more than likely, they'll rebuild around the said structure. They just need to make periodical tests to make sure nothing like that happens again.

They should skip Big Tex and build Big Dirk instead !

I remember seeing this Big Tex on King of the Hill. I'm not sure if I thought this was real or not but isn't this yet another one of those weird coincidences? Big Tex's 60th birthday and he happens to burn then? Okay.