Memory Lane RIP The Bradford 56

[OldBlueLady]

31 years ago today, remember it so clearly and thinking then, there but for the grace of God. The stand was so similar in many ways to our East Stand, which was where I used to watch Southend from back then. There was rubbish underneath in exactly the same way and people smoked back then, stubbing their ciggies out on the wooden floor. It could so easily have happened at any of hundreds of stadia, but unfortunately and tragically, it was Bradford's Valley Parade.

The changes to behaviour in grounds which arose from it were necessary and why so many of us STILL despise flares and smoke bombs, something which the younger supporters don't seem to understand at all.

I can't abide Parkinson, but still stand willingly shoulder to shoulder with Bradford supporters in their memories and tributes today.

 

[Floval Flyer]

I clearly remember this tragic day, cannot believe it was 31 years ago. Sadly this is often forgotten due to the equally tragic events at Hillsborough...

RIP the Bradford 56

 

[RobM]

When I worked at the refinery, we had regular fire training. One presentation was about the Bradford fire. The reason the brigade took a relatively long time to get there was because...nobody called 999. No mobile phones then, of course. An off-duty fireman saw the incident on TV and called his local station and said they'd need back-up. The reply "for what?" . Seems everyone thought someone else had called 999.
Emergency exits had been locked... And fans were caged in. The rubbish under the stands contained newspapers dated some 30 years earlier. All in all it was a disaster just waiting to happen.
Who was guilty? Those that smoked? Locked the exits? Those responsible for the fences? The thing that surprised me about the presentation was that smoke is airborne unburnt fuel. The explosion was the smoke igniting.

 

[MK Shrimper]

RIP indeed. Not sure it's been overlooked at all - whenever we had fire training here, they showed the video and how quickly it spread. Hillsborough was an outrage for other reasons irrespective of the number of dead.

 

[Ricey]

RIP indeed. Not sure it's been overlooked at all - whenever we had fire training here, they showed the video and how quickly it spread. Hillsborough was an outrage for other reasons irrespective of the number of dead.

When I did my fire training when I was an aviation fire fighter they showed the video too. That was the first time I saw it or knew about it, but I knew all about Hillsborough. I do think this is pushed to one side a little because of the court case with Hillsborough.

Both were huge tragedies and should be respected in the same way and get the same coverage. Wish they would put as much effort into paying respects to this disaster as Sky did to West Ham leaving their ****** ground!

RIP The Bradford 56.

 

[Uncle Leo]

The sheer amount of rubbish that had accumulated under that stand was a disgrace. They found a newspaper cutting dating back to 1971, so it had been at least 14 years since that area had been cleared.

A dark, dark day.

One of the survivors - Martin Fletcher - has written extensively about the tragedy http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/15/the-story-of-the-bradford-fire-book-extract

 

[Napster]

Steve Thompson, manager of Southend, played that day.

In August 1985, after playing over 150 games for Lincoln, Thompson moved to Charlton Athletic. In his last game for Lincoln he was to witness a nightmare when 56 spectators were killed in a horrendous stand fire while playing Bradford City.

This is a good story from a cracking website

http://bradfordcityfire.co.uk/john-...eing-brave-it-was-just-a-natural-thing-to-do/

 

[Supernaut]

One of the survivors - Martin Fletcher - has written extensively about the tragedy http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/15/the-story-of-the-bradford-fire-book-extract

Bloody hell.

 

[Stuart W]

RIP indeed. Not sure it's been overlooked at all - whenever we had fire training here, they showed the video and how quickly it spread. Hillsborough was an outrage for other reasons irrespective of the number of dead.

How can you possibly say that? I would love to have the stats on hours of bBBC coverage of Hillsborough compared to both the Bradford and the Heysal tragedies. All three were tragedies. It would just be appreciated if the bBBC in particular showed some balance. By the way the "b" before "BBC" stands for biased.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

How can you possibly say that? I would love to have the stats on hours of bBBC coverage of Hillsborough compared to both the Bradford and the Heysal tragedies. All three were tragedies. It would just be appreciated if the bBBC in particular showed some balance. By the way the "b" before "BBC" stands for biased.

No it stands for the British Broadcasting Corporation.The best of its kind in the world.

 

[Stuart W]

No it stands for the British Broadcasting Company.The best of its kind in the world.

You can't be serious surely. Sorry, I forgot you are indoctrinated by left wing principles which most of us left behind at university.

 

[MK Shrimper]

How can you possibly say that? I would love to have the stats on hours of bBBC coverage of Hillsborough compared to both the Bradford and the Heysal tragedies. All three were tragedies. It would just be appreciated if the bBBC in particular showed some balance. By the way the "b" before "BBC" stands for biased.

What I'm saying is, there was no Government & Police cover up over the terrible incident as opposed to Hillsborough. There were no headlines the next morning in The S*n accusing Bradford fans of ****ing on the dead. Can you explain why you think the BBC are biased towards Hillsborough?

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

You can't be serious surely. Sorry, I forgot you are indoctrinated by left wing principles which most of us left behind at university.

No, I'm perfectly serious.The BBC compares more than favourably with any channel I'm familiar with on Spanish,Catalan or French TV.

 

[AndyT]

A pendant writes : It's the British Broadcasting Corporation, I think.

Also, I think Stuart W is referring to his small 'b' before BBC.

For the record, Hillsborough has remained more in the public eye, because of the campaign.

I agree that both Heysel & Bradford should have had a greater emphasis on the importance of those tragedies, especially as the latter has recently been opened up again by Martin Fletcher's book.

All three are tragedies that had a large number of factors contributing to the deaths and not one single reason, including stadium design and health & safety issues.

 

[Stuart W]

What I'm saying is, there was no Government & Police cover up over the terrible incident as opposed to Hillsborough. There were no headlines the next morning in The S*n accusing Bradford fans of ****ing on the dead. Can you explain why you think the BBC are biased towards Hillsborough?

Just run past me the Liverpool fans behaviour at Heysal?

 

[rigsby]

Bradford had been warned several times about the fire risk, which they chose to ignore. That said all football clubs had the same attitude and at the time sports stadiums were not covered by any fire legislation, so the Fire Brigade had no power to enforce any basic precautions.

Survivors did later sue the football club. Like all disasters at the time,no one was ever really held accountable. Sadly around half the victims died at one chained and padlocked exit. They were all piled up against the gate.

The story that has never been told is that more than 50 people were saved by various Police officers and ordinary members of the public. Some of them received awards including the Queens Gallantry Medal. Highlighting once again the fabulously underrated traits of us British that surface so nobly during any disaster.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Just run past me the Liverpool fans behaviour at Heysal?

What's that got to do with Hillsborough?

 

[johnlattimerssponge]

Just run past me the Liverpool fans behaviour at Heysal?

Please do not divert this thread it is supposed to be about the tragedy at Bradford. RIP

But for the record I was at Heysel (spelt correctly) so I know a great deal about what happen that day but that is not for this thread. Also going back to your earlier comment the reason Hillsborough received more coverage was due the huge delay in achieving justice compared to the other two tragedies.

 

[rigsby]

What's that got to do with Hillsborough?

It added to the them and us culture that existed between football fans and the police/authorities. It was even worse when it came to Liverpool fans.

 

[* ORM *]

Please do notdivert this thread it is supposed to be about the tragedy at Bradford. RIP

But for therecord I was at Heysel (spelt correctly) so I know a great deal about what happen that day but that is not for this thread. Also going back to your earlier comment the reason Hillsborough received more coverage was due the huge delay in achieving justice compared to the other two tragedies.

Justice being an interesting observation on Hillsborough but that's another thread.

I remember first reading about Bradford on a cross-channel Ferry back from Zebrugge. I too had fire training in which the video was shown. I can't think of anything more tragic on the football side in my lifetime. No crumb of comfort for the families but it brought about a meaningful change in ground regulations.

RIP indeed and thanks for the reminder OBL