The City of Boerne verified on Friday that one person died from injuries sustained after bleachers at the Kendall County Fair's rodeo collapsed on Saturday night.
Officials identified the victim as 79-year-old Vera Asher Smith. She had been the last person injured in the incident still hospitalized almost a week later.
In an earlier official statement, officials said the bleachers in Boerne were built without a permit. They said the fair never applied for one. Welding to finalize assembly of the structure was being done as late as the day before, and it was never inspected.
The statement added that "it was determined the bleachers in question were an old structure that was salvaged, and the new structure was made to house eight VIP sections, the bar, and a common walkway."
The annual festivities at the Boerne fairgrounds typically include a carnival and a rodeo, and the bleachers are filled with spectators.
On Saturday night, around 9 p.m., during the bull riding competition, a portion of bleachers collapsed.
April Cleghorn witnessed the collapse. She was there with her fiancé, Kyle Szuck.
“All of a sudden, we hear this loud crashing sound and all these people screaming, and we look over to the right. Some people had fallen through the bleachers, and so right away, my fiancé — he's a vet — so, you know, instinct just told him to go and run over there to go see what he could do to help,” she explained.
Szuck and others in the crowd tried to pull people from out of the wreckage. “There's about seven, eight guys there already holding up the beams and the bleachers. So he decided to help,” Cleghorn said. “Eventually, there was probably a total ... 30-35 men just there helping.”
She added: “At first it was a little chaotic, like everybody running and screaming, and then once they got over there, it was almost silent, and there was like one, maybe two guys just kind of directing,” Cleghorn said. “It was very heroic, where I could just see everybody just kind of listening and following direction to make sure that we had the best outcome for everybody that was injured."
Cleghorn said watching her fiancé underneath the bleacher structure was a bit unnerving because people weren't sure if more of the bleachers would collapse.
“We didn't know what the extent of the bleachers were, and if they were going to continue falling, or what that situation was. Everybody just kind of working together to make sure that they had the best outcome until first responders came,” Cleghorn said.
Onlookers on social media said that dozens of men held up steel supports while others pulled out people pinned underneath them.
After the incident, the rodeo event was canceled, but the rest of the carnival continued.
The Kendall County Fair is held on a sprawling 55-acre complex given to the city in 1913 by its original owners, the Ferdinand Herff family.
