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Bonfires on Franklin Street have evolved to occur after significant men’s basketball wins, typically against Duke or following national championship wins. Students and fans storm Franklin, and within minutes the fires spring up throughout the intersection of Columbia and Franklin Streets.
After the national championship victory in 2005, 11 burn victims were seen in the UNC Hospital’s emergency room. After the 2009 championship win, eight students were treated at the Burn Center. The Chapel Hill Town Council looked at containing the bonfires in 2006. It is illegal to start a bonfire but very difficult for police to make arrests because of the size of the crowds, and no one has been arrested in recent years. In 2007, the faculty council passed a resolution calling to reform the celebration. Students have rebuffed both the town and faculty’s efforts.
Franklin Street bonfires are a recent tradition. Former Chapel Hill police Chief Gregg Jarvies said he remembers bonfires on Franklin Street as early as the 1977 NCAA tournament men’s basketball loss to Marquette, but says they were smaller and much more manageable. Today’s bonfires are much larger, more widespread and cause more damage. Burn Center director Bruce Cairns believes UNC students modeled the Franklin Street bonfire tradition after Duke, where students also set bonfires after historic wins.
Former student body president Jasmin Jones made a serious effort to persuade students to abandon the bonfire tradition during her 2009-10 term, but UNC’s dismal season and two losses to Duke had the effect of chilling any bonfire potential. After the Tar Heels beat Duke on March 5, 2011 to win the ACC regular season championship, students rushed Franklin and lit bonfires within minutes.
Of the two major suggestions proposed Wednesday night to counteract the Franklin Street bonfire tradition, one was actually another bonfire.
The forum, held with the goal of devising an alternative to celebratory bonfires in time for the Feb. 10 game against Duke, was an extension of the ideas that Student Body President Jasmin Jones has advocated this school year.
UNC isn’t the only school concerned about the safety of its post-game celebrations.
Duke and N.C. State universities have enacted policies that dictate when students can and cannot have bonfires before and after major sporting events.
Junior Andrew Madlon felt like most UNC students last year after the men’s basketball victory against Villanova in the Final Four: elated, excited and ready to celebrate on Franklin Street.
But Madlon came away with what he described as the worst memory of his college years. He fell into a fire that inflicted second- and third-degree burns to about five inches of his right arm.
UNC is not alone in its passion for collegiate sports. Campuses across the country find their own ways to rejoice or agonize over big sports events.
Due to an editing error, two photo captions with this story misstated when junior Andrew Madlon and eight students were hospitalized with burns. The burns occurred following basketball wins on April 4 and April 6. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the errors.
Due to a reporting error, this story misstated the relationship between Carolina Athletic Association and Carolina Fever, which is an independent student fan group. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
Student Body President Jasmin Jones has been saying for a while that basketball celebrations on Franklin Street need to change.
But after a visit to the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center on Friday, there was no doubt in her mind that celebratory bonfires have to go.
Franklin Street bonfires are a staple of victory celebrations, but some UNC faculty members want to extinguish the practice.
The Faculty Council unanimously passed a resolution Friday that encourages reform of the fiery celebration rituals, noting that the flames often cause severe injuries.
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