Funerals Begin for Victims of Bonfire Collapse

Friends and families began burying their dead Saturday as Texas A&M; University struggled to cope with the bonfire tower collapse that killed 12 people and injured 27.

About 1,000 people attended the funeral service for Nathan Scott West, a 19-year-old sophomore oceanography major who was killed in the Thursday morning accident.

“Why does tragedy happen to good people who are going about doing good for others?” asked the Rev. Mark Young. “ . . . To suggest it was Scott’s time to leave Earth is some kind of cruel joke.”

At the end of the service in the Houston suburb of Bellaire, mourners linked arms and sang the Aggie fight song.

Texas A&M; President Ray Bowen has ordered the formation of a task force of 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.”

Hospital waiting rooms near the campus were crowded with students offering blood, sympathy and support for the seven people still receiving treatment. Up to 40 students have maintained a 24-hour vigil at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center.

“It has been incredible,” said Cheryl Davis, mother of hospitalized student William Davis.

Two people--Davis, from Bellaire, and John Comstock of Richardson, Texas--were in critical condition Saturday, while three were in serious condition: Chad Hutchinson of Houston, J.H. Washam of Dallas and Dominic Braus of Hallettsville, Texas.