The building of the bonfire began early Thursday morning when Meadowbrook Lumber trucks began unloading 300 pieces of lumber onto the Green.
By tonight, the freshmen will have completed a 41-foot tall structure made out of 61 tiers of wood, said Ken Jones, the assistant athletic director who is responsible for this year's construction of the bonfire.
Until about five years ago, bonfire creators used railroad ties in the structure, but worries about the effects of burning the chemical preservatives used in the ties prompted them to switch to untreated landscaping ties, Jones said.
Building took place from dawn to dusk on Thursday and will continue today until the bonfire is completed, said Alpha Kappa Alpha brother Chris Barnes '95, one of the two upperclass supervisors of the project.
The upperclassmen will not be doing any of the labor on the bonfire. "It's pretty much up to the '98's to build it," Barnes said.
Mona Gupta '98, the co-chair of the freshman council's bonfire committee, said they organized groups of 20 freshmen to work on the construction of the bonfire at every hour.
The bonfire is composed of three sections, Jones said. The first 33 tiers are in the shape of a six-pointed star. The next 22 are in a hexagonal shape, and the final 7 tiers are in a square. The class numeral will be placed on the top.
The interior of the bonfire is wood fill, which will burn inside the structure.
"A large share of the fill is wooden pallets. Evidently, there is no established use for them," Jones said.
A number of local companies, especially printing firms, save their wooden shipping materials for use in the bonfire.
To start the fire, the bonfire workers will use five to ten gallons of Facilities Operations and Management's leftover paint thinner and other similar chemicals, Jones said.
These chemicals release nonflammable fumes when burned, as opposed to gasoline, Jones said.
The structure of the bonfire should cause the upper tier to fall into the lower star-pattern, but "if there is wind, it can burn unevenly," Jones said.
In the interest of safety only 20 people will be allowed on the bonfire during its construction, said Gupta.
During Friday, the Environmental Studies Division, the Forestry Team, the Tucker Foundation Wood Crew and Operation Insulation will all work on the Green chopping wood to be used as emergency fuel for people in the Upper valley area, Tucker Foundation Director Randall Quan '92 said.
"The event is to get people to understand during this time of celebration that there are lots of people in need," he said.
The bonfire is made up of about $6,000 of soft wood, which is not suited for fuel use, Quan said.
Operation Insulation and the Tucker Wood Crew are part of an ongoing project to provide emergency insulation and fuel to local residents and to spread awareness of lack of proper insulation and heat in the Upper Valley, he said.
The tradition of wood chopping on the Green during Homecoming began in 1992, Quan said.
