Bonfire memorial to be dedicated

[TexasStooge]

Associated Press/The Dallas Morning News

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Thousands of people are expected in College Station Thursday for dedication of a memorial to victims of the Texas A&M bonfire collapse.

The Nov. 18, 1999, accident killed 12 Aggies and injured 27 others.

The $5 million granite and bronze memorial was built on the grassy field where the log pile came down.

An A&M commission blamed the collapse on flawed construction techniques and lack of adequate supervision of students assembling the stack.

The memorial's centerpiece is a circle of 12 rectangular arches, one for each person who died.

They are connected by 27 large stones -- symbolic of those injured.


The circle is made up of arches 16 feet tall and positioned so that each faces the hometown of a victim.

Within the granite arches are 12-foot bronze portals with a sculpted portrait and writings from or about each victim.