Bradford City Fire

[SOXY BOY]

38 years ago, 56 football fans lost their lives in the Bradford City fire. For me, one of the saddest days in football history.

[79blue]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

[Captain_Sensible]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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?

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

[splott parker]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

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.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

[splott parker]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

Those 4 years, 68-72 ( I’d been watching from other parts of the ground before then), were exhilarating for a teenager on the Grangetown End, the plastic fan phenomenon hadn’t really caught on and all my mates were City fans. No segregation giving it an aura of tribal resistance and a definite smell of evil, sounds so un PC now but but we were like bees to honey. It was fantastic!!

I know we regularly get 20 thousand + now but our regular 20 thousand + in those days seemed so much more tightly knit and those cup games with over 50 thousand, wow!!! I mention those four years particularly because it’s as if Scoular was building a club destined for Division One in those years. If only we’d had a board with bollocks this club could have taken off, I truly believe that, the South Wales area was ready & waiting. The plastics would,nowadays, be few & far between, So annoying!

Ninian Park had to go, it was decrepit in latter years, a disgrace with no scope for development really, a one street entrance was always going to be a hindrance to improvements. I’m glad we’re over the road now, I was getting to hate Ninian Park and it’s abysmal faciities, we had to move on or I dread to think where we’d be now, the dungeon or, God forbid, worse. But it was of it’s time for those teenage years of mine and I’m so thankful I’ve lived in the era I’ve lived in.

[Loramski]

Re: Bradford City Fire

I was at Plough Lane that day (the last time we got relegated from the second tier, incidentally). They had a couple of wooden stands there that weren't allowed to be used again if I remember rightly. I wouldn't credit the Soul Crew with prescience but they'd been dismantling one of them bench by bench as the afternoon wore on. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking 'that could've been us' when they heard about the tragedy. There were so many accidents waiting to happen in grounds back then, as others have said.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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 .

[NYCBlue]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

My second game I was on the Grange End. 1976. City 3-1 Hereford. It was so intimidating. I remember going up the back to see some mates. I was shit scared. There were some proper nutters up there.

[Barmy]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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 remember being under there once when city scored, it was like a bomb went off!
Rained coins though, so not all bad.:hehe:

[Harry Lime]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.

[lardy]

Re: Bradford City Fire

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.