One of the traditions at Rose-Hulman is the annual homecoming bonfire. It has always been a good time and is huge conflagration (or at least it was). If you just want to see cool picture of big fire go to the bottom of the page. If you want to hear me complain about the current state of the bonfire, read on.
Okay, so burning tons of railroad ties coated in creatine is not exactly Mr. Friendly to the environment, but hey, it was only once a year and Rose-Hulman owned Terre Haute. But no, some guy who transferred into Rose for one quarter and then transferred out had to complain to the EPA about it (way to be a team player). So the EPA came and said we could only use a few untreated railroad ties (which are a lot more expensive then ones coated in creatine, but do not happen to cause caner). If we violated the EPA rules, we would get stuck with some $25,000 fine. Now I say, screw the EPA. All we have to admit one more student in the freshman class and we got the cost of the fine covered. Apparently some of the Alumni who really liked the bonfire had a similar idea. The school paper said that some of the alumni were willing to help pay the cost of the fine if Rose blatantly disregarded the EPA and had its normal bonfire. Unfortunately, it was not "proper" for a University to flagrantly break the law, so we were stuck with a reduced bonfire. It was a major disappointment . The fire actually burned itself out before it consumed all the railroad ties. I sure hope they can get something figured out so it sucks a lot less.
And now what you really wanted to see, big columns of fire. All these pictures are from the 2000 bonfire, where I got to help lite it. You can also see the bonfire site with some pics. Enjoy.
 |  Beginning to burn |  |
 |  |  |
The bonfire is (or at least was) a lot of fun. I have other stories to go along with it, but my lawyers advise not to publicly admit to them (Just take a good look at what is on the top of the bonfire). Fire is good, and I hope that there are large ones in the future.
