It’s a time that will never be forgotten in College Station. Ten years ago at 2:42 in the morning a 59-foot high stack of wood prepared for a Texas A&M bonfire collapsed killing 12 people and injuring 27 others.

Enhanced content: Bonfire Memorial | 10th Anniversary of bonfire collapse nears | A&M remembers fatal '99 bonfire collapse

The bonfire tradition at Texas A&M started in 1909, 100 years ago. To many, it symbolized every Aggie’s "burning desire" to beat the University of Texas in football. Students spent countless hours chopping trees and stacking the wood. It reportedly evolved into the largest bonfire in the world.

But early on November 18th 1999, a week before it was to burn, something went terribly wrong. In seconds logs from the million pound structure began tumbling down trapping many of the workers. The collapse ended in tragedy.

Two Austinites remember it well. Stephen Mason and Doug Keegan were seniors at A&M in 1999. They were supposed to work on the bonfire that fateful night but their shift changed. Late that night, Keegan was on his computer and became startled when he glanced at his TV showing a live picture of the bonfire under construction.

Keegan recalls, "What I saw on TV wasn't right. That's the image that will stick in my head. I could see the toppled over stack and some flashing lights and the people moving around. You sit there and your brain kind of rejects what you’re seeing."

The worst had happened. Keegan, Mason and other students from their dorm scrambled to the bonfire site. According to Keegan, "For the first few hours the worst part was sitting out there in the hours before dawn and you couldn't do anything. You knew there were Aggies in there who were hurt and you couldn't do anything." Mason says, “I hope to God I never go through anything like that again."

Keegan remembers how many of the students felt that night. "There was a real sense of ignorance at that point of how bad and how tragic it was. Once we got all of our equipment and we bolted out there about a quarter of a mile. We saw what had happened. It just hit you like a ton of bricks."

A unified rescue effort took place. Everyone wanted to help and did according to Mason. “People talk a lot about the tragedy of that experience and it was the most tragic thing I had ever seen. But at the same time, the quiet resonant heroism of the people that I saw was really amazing to me,” Mason says. Keegan adds, “It was A&M's darkest day and finest hour."

To Aggies, Bonfire was much more than just a stack of wood and the hope of winning a football game. It came to symbolize the Aggie spirit, representing hard work, determination and teamwork.

Keegan remembers it fondly, "Bonfire was about getting to the end of two months of hard work. You're looking up and realizing you were a part of something infinitely bigger than yourself. As an 18 year old that's kind of an astounding realization."

Mason agrees, "We weren't taking them out to build bonfire, we were going out to build them into adults. It was this laboratory for learning character and trust and hard work and integrity,” Mason told KEYE TV’s Ron Oliveira. 

A&M graduate Christopher Breen of Austin returned to College Station in 1999 to help with Bonfire. He was at the top of the stack when it collapsed and died. He was 25.

His brother, Sean Breen says his brother was bigger than life itself. "He was a giver. I think he epitomized the kind of leader in people that you want your son or your daughter to grow up to be. And that was the real tragic thing about this collapse is that you look at the roster of the people that we lost and they were givers by their nature." 

Marking the 10 year anniversary, Breen states, "It's the joys of people coming together to do what they love and mixed and tempered with the tragedy of people who died doing something, in the grand scheme of things, is something you should never die for."

Bonfire is now held off campus. Governor Perry, an A&M graduate is hopeful it will be reintroduced on the grounds of the university in the near future.