38 years ago, 56 football fans lost their lives in the Bradford City fire. For me, one of the saddest days in football history.
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38 years ago, 56 football fans lost their lives in the Bradford City fire. For me, one of the saddest days in football history.
I can remember watching the events unfold on Grandstand on the BBC. It sticks in mind as I can remember reading the articles about in the newspapers on the following Monday as I travelled to Darlington by train, on my way to Catterick to start my army basic training. It feels like yesterday.
Was before my time but remember seeing the footage on YouTube out of curiosity but quickly regretted it. Desperately sad sights that stick with you including the man walking around while completely alight. Also reading about the man who had to decide whether to save his young son or elderly grandfather. RIP.
That must have been a tough time for football, a teenager died the same day at Leeds v Birmingham after a wall collapsed and weren't the Millwall v Leeds riots and Heysel the same month?
I’m old enough to remember the Ibrox disaster in 1971 I think it was, but Scotland was like a different world then so, wrongly, it never had that big an impact on me. Therefore, the Bradford fire felt like the first Football disaster I’d experienced and then there was another one a fortnight or so later. Being in a football ground felt a bit different for a while after Bradford and Heysel.
Years ago you could walk under the wooden terracing of the old Grange End to get to the bob bank. A not too dissimilar environment to Bradford's.
I walked under there stacks of times - this may just be my memory playing tricks, but I seem to remember rubbish being piled up under there on the Sloper Road side of the Grange End.Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish
We used to walk under there, looking up through the slats in the timbers without a care in the world. Fans bouncing up and down on the timber terracing, never a thought of how strong the structure was. I wonder if it was ever tested/checked for stability and if it was, how often over its life? Amazing how things were just accepted, the crowds, I and you were in, against Leeds & Arsenal in the cup particularly were water off a duck’s back to us. Looking back, the place was an accident waiting to happen. Thank God we got away with it down the City, unfortunates at other grounds didn’t. RIP.
I mentioned Ibrox earlier, I watched what might have been a fiftieth anniversary documentary about it quite recently. It was a real eye opener - the stairway that was the scene of the disaster had seen earlier deaths and was deemed not fit for purpose some eight years I think it was before sixty six died in 1971. The accident happened because people who were leaving by the stairway turned back when a late goal was scored and created a crush with those coming down the stairs. It’s not the same thing, but I’d say there was the potential for something similar to happen under the Grange End if, say City had scored late on in that 1969 FA Cup game with Arsenal.
Yet, nobody gave anything like that a second thought until that Safety of Sports Ground inspection in 1977 which signalled the end of the old Grange End - despite it all though, it was by far the best and most atmospheric location I’ve ever been in watching City play at home.
I remember being under there once when city scored, it was like a bomb went off!
Rained coins though, so not all bad.
I moved to Bradford a few years after the fire . The memorial is in the city centre which is good as its easy to spot with the flowers and a reminder of what those poor people went through .
The footage and the commentary by John Helm is one of the most harrowing things I've ever seen. It's still quite shocking how fast the fire took hold.
They used footage from the tragedy in fire fighter training to show how quickly it can spread. Possibly still do.
I use it all the time on safety courses. I showed it on Friday. Was even more poignant than usual being the actual anniversary.
For all the moaning about identical soulless stadiums for those of us who remember back to the 70's the grounds then were disgraceful.
They really were death traps and I was and still am glad to see the back of them.
Frankly I am surprised that there were so few incidents when looking back and remembering the state of the grounds, policing and general behaviour.
Possibly the relatively low crowds of that era meant that the potential dangers were mitigated.
Exactly, that’s what I was getting at in my post. We City fans got away with it, if you like, in those massive crowds against the likes of Leeds, Arsenal etc in the late 60s/early 70s. Even more so in the 60 thousand + crowds in earlier years. There but for the grace of God.
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