HomeMy WebLinkAboutBonfireCollapse-NOV21-Pg1. - „
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I~~T`S: Texas A&1~ soccer team faces Nebraska, C1. INSIDE;1VIost Texans su ort school ra er A2.
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High 78, lQw 44
Sunda Partly cloudy ,'>,~'`
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November 21,1999 ~ skies ~~~
I.:. Forecast IA7 `
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Vo1.125, No. 325, 6 sections Bryan-College Station, Texas $1.25
A GRIEF OBSERVED
i < <~e were
all planning
on finishing
before Friday
night. I guess
it doesn't
matter
anymore."
- CHAD HUTCHIN3DN
Bonfae ~llapae survivor
Sophomore Chad Hutchinson
was woric~g the mklnlght to
6 a.m, shMt when the Bonflra
stack collapsed earty Thursday
momint. The 19-yearold
crew chief Is recovering at
St. Josa~ Ragbnal Health
Certtar In Bryan.
Ella Soto
Butch Ireland
• • • ~
Surv~vor~ recall tra is details o~ fat~~ul n~ ht
.. g ~
By LAURA HIPP Sitting in a chair in his hospital room Saturday, When Hutchinson regained consciousness later
Eagle Stq~'Writer the'sophomore industrial distribution student Thursdayat 5t. Joseph Regional Health Center, he
from Houston said his location on the 40-foot pile asked his father what had happened.
' alloons and colarfbl posters lined the walls of logs was "as high as you could get at that "I was ~ little disappointed Bonfire wasn't going
and the smell of dozens of bouquets filled the point." to burn," ~e said.
air of the hospital rooms. Hutchinson said he didn't notice anything The stack :wasn't leaning or swaying before it
But Chad Hutchinson couldn't smell the flowers unusual about the stack before hearing a pop. He fell, Hutctinson said, and he was tying the bottom
sent by well-wishers. The 19•year-0ld Texas A&M told his father, Bill, it was the loudest he'd ever half of onr log to others.. Then the stack rollapsed,
Bonfire crew chief still had tubes inserted in his heard. with it filing in o~ direction and him flying m
r nose. "The only thing I remember is hearing lots of the other.
Hutchinson was working the midnight to 6 people cussing," he said. "Then I wake up, and I
a.m. shift on the fourth stack Thursday morning. was in the hospital. I just knew it wasn't good." See RECALL, Page A5
INSIDE
~ local memorial services,
funeral times /A~
i Victim profile /AS
~ Hundreds attend funeral
in Bellaire /A9
~ Internet support /A9
~ letters /A10
.Cheer
Fund
1999
Here are the first contribu•
a tions to the 1999 Cheer Fund:
.,,Wayne & Mary
Saslow ............. $100
Kiwanis of
College Station....... 150
"Lions Club of Bryan ..500
~, Anonymous .......... 50
` New Chapel Baptist
Church ..............25
Itt honor of my three sons,
Mrs. Jack Borden ..... 50
Anonymous .........100
Sidney & Janet
Loveless .............. 25
"Evening Study Club.... 50
' Today's total ...... $1,050
} Total to date....... $1,050
Contributions may be sent
'to The Cheer Fund, P.O. Box
j 3000, Bryan, Texas 77805.3000.
Losses
stagger
Corps
Rangers aiding
Bonfire in ui
By JOHN HIRSCH
Eagle St[~'Writ~
Timothy Doran Kerlee Jr. received a pair of
senior boots and a saber from his Corps of
Cadets unit as he lay in his hospital bed after
being critically injured in the Bonfire accident
Thursday at Texas A&M University.
On Friday evening, Kerlee, a 17•year•old
sophomore from Bartlett, Tenn., became the 12th
to die in the accident, which injured 27 others.
Corps spokesman Joseph "Doc" Mills said
Saturday that Squadron 16 wanted Kerlee to be
"comforted."
"They wanted him to feel good and know they
were caring about him and that he was a part of
their outfit."
The death toll fell particularly hard on the
Corps, which plays a key role in building the
Bonfire stack, tt'aditionally set afire in a pep
rally before the A&M-University of Texas foot-
ball game.
Of the 12 people killed, eight were either
active or former cadets.
"We've never experienced anything like this.
It's something, that we're just day-to-day trying
to figure out what to do with," sophomore cadet
Dustin Greene said.
"We lost a lot of good boys. That's something
we'll have to deal with," he said,
Greene said he knew one of the people killed,
Lucas Inmel, a freshman cadet - or "fish," as
they're known in the Carpe.
"He was a great .kid, an unbelievable 8esh-
man," Greene said.
Law enforcement officers. from A&M, the
cities of Bryan and College Station, and aBryan-
based Texas Ranger plan to meet Monday to dis-
cuss the investigation of the Bonfire accident,
said Bob Wiatt, director of security and univer-
sity police at A&M.
He said there's no particular significance in the
Texas Rangers participating in the investigation,
See CORPS, Page A4
Children mirror
convmun 's 'ef
Kids struggle to grasp weight of tragedy
By COLLEEN KAVANAGH ,1, ~,
and JOHN LeBAS
Eagle Stc~'Writers ;~. -~:`
~~ 0
.. aMr~ 5 ~ 3
v ~
"
Five-year-old Kayley Brauer, ~
~ ~ ~
too young to fully grasp the +~. ~~!
~~n
~
tragedy of Thursday's Bonfire col-
lapse
nonetheless wanted to spell ', '
~
"
`'~~ a `~
~~
, ~ ~~~~
out her wishes for the 12 Aggies
h ti~~
~
w
o died.
" ~ ;
" - "
I will remember you and miss
" ~
you,
Kayley .asked her mom to
writ _
Y~
~ ~ ~~
e. A -
The Brauer. family then visited
the Bonfire site to leave the note
and a bouquet of flowers. -.. - __. -
_ _.._ _ . ~-
~
~
"We told her they cut down - k. ~ ~~
°
_ _~
trees to make a fire to burn before -.. _. - - ~
th
°
id K
l
'
h '
e game,
sa
ay
ey
s mot
er,
Amie Br
"Whil
th +
_
Texas A&M Univereky senior Jaws Yeager studies the AgQe rings at the makeshR! namorial In front of the auer.
e
ey were
doing it, something happened and ~ €
letters of condol~ce, poems and growing ium-her ~ Adminhstration Bulldksg on Sabrday. it fell on some kids. ~„ *~" ~~ "~}:
Veteran officer hit hard b scene "i told her everyone is sad
~ they re never going to see
them again. They're in heaven," t
She Said. Eagle photo/Ryan Rogers
By HELLY BROWN versify, could have prepared him 23-hour anc 40-minute search-and- As the Aggie family tries to .year old Sachs Masuca left a
~~ ~.~ W~~' for what happened before dawn recoveryefort. The next evening, come to grips with the loss of 12 written wish for the 12 fallen Aggles.
Thursday. the death toll in the tight-knit young lives, adults are trying to
A 30-year veteran agent of the The violent collapse of A&M's Aggie famiil~ rose to 12 when a crit- help children understand that for the fallen and injured Aggies
FBI, Bob Wiatt has been at both unlit Bonfire came as some 70 stu• icaIly injut~d student died. death is forever. alongside flowers, notes, helmets
ends of a bullet. He's chased down dents, tied to the logs by safety har• "This was the most massive loss Dozens of children held their and clothing left by A&M stu•
murderers, interrogated hardened nesses, were working on the 40•foot of life I've seen at one time in my 48 parents' hands Saturday as fami• dents.
.criminals and helped resolve one stack. Four of the 27 injured were years of weu~ing the badge," Wiatt lies walked around the remains of On a sheet of construction
of America's bloodiest prison slowly and carefully extracted said. "It probably hit me harder Bonfire. It was the first time many paper, an 8•year-old drew 12 smil-
sieges. from beneath the logs over asix- than any oher single event in my of the younger kids -even those ing angels -one for each Aggie
But nothing in his career, which hour period. career." growing up in Aggie households who died - and a written wish:
includes almost 18 years as dii'ec- Eleven lifeless bodies were -visited the campus.
for of security at Texas A&M Uni- pulled from the wreckage during a Soe VETERAN, Page A5 Children placed remembrances See KIDS, Page A5
e
TODAY'S
SMILE
I'm smiling because ...
"I'm having a good day."
Brandon Garrett,
College Station
~, +
`Forever' family
Older children face unique challengEs
when encountering the adoption prmess.
Brazos Sunday/D1
~~
,,u'
iATQiTL`
The Eagle online;
www.theeagle.com
wvvw aggiesports.com
'-~
n
Page A4 The Bryaa•Couege Statron Eagle ~uiaday, NoYember 21,1999
Nation
Announcing the addition of
MaryA.nn Choi, M.D.
~~ .
` '
'~ t?r. Croi is aboard-certified in Intetrud Medicine and also completed atwo-
year felou,ship in Geriatric Medicine, for which she recei~d an additional
diptmiw from die American Baird of Intemat Medicine grantittg her °Added
Qualifictdons in Gemtric Medicine."
„,.,
~~- . Senior Health Center
p:., 1605 Rock Prait`ie Road
'~ ~ College Station
(acrox the street from the College Stataon Medical Center)
New patients welcome.
Most insurance plans accepted
~ , including Medicare and Medicaid.
Far an appointment, call
(409} 7645277
(~'~onnar's 1
e ac cow hey
~ ~' p
Cardinal who charmed and provol~ed nears retirement
~' BETIi J. ~'~ York's Archdi~ese since 1984. The charismatic men may seem to be a
Associaterl'Pr~ss oldest actf bish th
NEW YO12K -He's charmed
New Yorkers, sided with striking
unions and washed the hair of
AIDS patients. He's also made ene•
mies and headlines over everything
from gay rights to rack music.
Sueh is the complex legacy of
Cardinal John O'Connor, who has
led the 2 million Catholics of New
ve op m e Umted
States, O'Connor had a brain tumor
removed in ~ptember and turns $d
in Jantt~uy. He recently said in a
letter to U.S. bishops that he does
not "antici~te continuing in atflce
much longer." '
O'Connor's tenure has been com-
pared to that of the pope who made
him cardinal, John Paul II.
`Each of these colorful and
Will Birdwell Memorial Scholarship Dinner
Past n
With sympathy and respect for our
Texas... A&M friends, the.. .
Will Birdwell Memorial Scholarship
Dinner originally scheduled for
Thursday, November 25
has been postponed.
Call the Eagle Info-ljne 77d-.54613.
Sincerely,
The Brazos. Valley Texas Exes
walking contradiction m terms:
rigidly conservative and authori•
tarian in matters of doctrine, sexu•
al morality and church discipline,
but progressively liberal in their
commitment to the marginalize,
the poor, the ill, the immigrant;,,
said Scott Appleby, a historian ~t
Notre Dame University.
O'Connor has often made waves.
Anyone "advocating legislation
supporting abortion, or by making
public fluids available for abortion
.., must be warned that they are at a
risk of excommunication," he
wrote in 1990.
In the late '80s, as the AIDS epi•
demic raged, O'Connor barred gay
Catholics Pram a Manhattan
church where they had met for
eight years. He sued the city over
gay rights regulations. In response,
protesters threw condoms during
Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral and
chained themselves to pews.
Yetunder O'Connor, St. C1are's,a
Catholic hospital, opened an AIDS
ward. Sometimes, the cardin~t
would go there to wash the hair and
empty bedpans of people so sick
they did not recognize him. And he
condemned anti•gay attacks after
Matthew Shepard's murder, saty-
ing: "There is no room for hatr~l.'
Sometimes the cardinal was
ridiculed, "SATAN'S SONGS"
screamed a 1990 New York Post
headline after O'Connor called rock
music "a help to the devil." He also
chastised baseball leagues for play
ing on Good k~iday.
Cor ~
~p
From A i
which will rely on information
provided by independent and
university engineers, '
Wiatt said his officers are
restricting access to the immedi-
ate Bonfire site to make sure
investigators have a "pristine"
scene to examine.
"Every log will not be touched
unless it's by an authorized indi-
vidual," he said.
The university has hired a
f"irm to take soil samples at the
site, and those samples may be
~rtflf the investigation, ~Wiatt
said.
Wiatt said there's no evidence
of wrongdoinh or negligence in
the Bonfire accident. ~
"'Phis is not a criminal fnvesti~
gation, it's a scientific investiga=
tion," he said.
Wiatt omphasized that,' so far;
only rumors have surfaced.
"There's been no evidence oi'
negligence on the part of the stu=
dents,"' he said. "I say to those
who say something like that;
come foru+ard to the police." ,
Justice of the Peace George
Boyett ordered blood to be
drawn from each of the 12 Aggie»i
who died, a course of action that
is standard procedure, Wiatt
said.
"Based on statements from the
students at the site,' we have na
reason to believe there was.
drinking or any other inappro•
priate behavior," he said.
Wiatt also dispelled rumors
about the investigation focusing
on centerpole, which is Bon•
fire's main support beam:
"Our focus is everything also
dated with the structure, cer-
tainly not just the centerpole,"
he said,
Members of the A&M comm~-
nity spent much of Saturday try-
ing to come to terms with the
tragedy.
"'Sometimes, you just want to
give somebody a hug because
that helps," said Sherylon Car•
xoll,<associate director of univer~
city relations.
Mills cautioned against vieww
ing the 1,960•cadet Corps as dis-
tinct from the rest of A&M;
which has 48,540 students:
"I don't think it would be accu=
rate to depict us as being some
how separate and independent
from the student body, and havF
ing more or less sentiment for
a`ny school tradition," Mills said.
At the Bonfire site Saturday,
ringed by plastic orange fencing,
well-wishers continued to place
flowers and mementos in
remembrance of those who were
killed and injured in the aecit
dent, s
On Saturday morning, a
mourner played Amazing .Grace
on bagpipes; the music adding to
the alreadysomber mood. }
Expressions of grief continued
to came in.
On Saturday, the White House
released a statement from Presn
dent Clinton that said:
"This is a heartbreaking loss,
America stands with the Collage
Station community as it joins'
together during this difficult
time.
Hillary and I offer our
thoughts and prayers to the fain-
dies and friends of those who
were injured or killed in this
devastating accident."
Sunday, November 21, 1998 The Bryan-College Station Eagle Page B7