Burn Ban Alters SFA’s Bonfire Plans

NACOGDOCHES (AP/Staff) – A county-wide burn has prompted Stephen F. Austin State University to adorn its homecoming bonfire structure with electric lights instead of torching it with flames. SFA dean Adam Peck says the college has traditionally set a bonfire structure ablaze for homecoming but the state’s prolonged drought made that “inadvisable” this year. The Daily Sentinel reports that in the absence of a bonfire, students dropped plans to burn shirts printed by other colleges as they’ve done in the past. Peck said school officials would collect the shirts and donate them to the needy instead. The university’s torchlight parade went on Friday night as planned but with lanterns, glow sticks and other portable lights guiding the way to the bonfire site instead of lit torches.