Bradford City Stadium Fire 11th May 1985

[mrgravy]

It's utterly heartbreaking to revisit that event, like many others here I vividly remember watching it happen on (almost) live tv. The commentator saying "oh the poor man" as the guy on fire walked onto the pitch has always stayed with me.
There was no perimeter fencing at Valley Parade, the disaster would have been unimaginably worse if there had been.

 

[mrgravy]

I remember seeing that famous video of it and initially wondering how anyone was going to die from it as everyone was moving away from it so casually as if it wasn't even a big deal. Then it just spreads at crazy rate, although still little confused how some people didn't manage to get away from it in time. I guess anyone disabled or elderly was going to have problems with mobility.

Agreed, it is hard to imagine how so many were not able to escape. But it turns out that half of the victims were found near locked exits and turnstiles.

 

[4 Eyes Better Than 2]

These two side by side pictures tell you the speed of the fire and how quickly it spread. Devastating. Many fans jumped over the advertising boards and onto the pitch but some ran to the back of the stand to find emergency exit doors to exit onto the street outside. The thickness of the smoke was so great that they couldn’t find these doors….. and the fans lost there way. The time stamp in these pictures is horrifying.

Was only a kid at the time but i remember being utterly shocked by the footage on the news. Valley parade and Heysel in the same month. Painstakingly sad.

 

[arch stanton]

I remember seeing that famous video of it and initially wondering how anyone was going to die from it as everyone was moving away from it so casually as if it wasn't even a big deal. Then it just spreads at crazy rate, although still little confused how some people didn't manage to get away from it in time. I guess anyone disabled or elderly was going to have problems with mobility.

some went to the back of the stands as that is where the proper exits were, but they were locked and unattended. Once the fire got set, there was no way out for them passed it and onto the pitch.

 

[Littlesue]

Awful day, I was listening to West Midlands Sports while decorating my bedroom when it came on, couldn't believe what I was seeing when I turned telly on.
Don Goodman who was playing for Bradford that day lost his girlfriend in the fire.

 

[DuncanDoughnuts]

Awful day, I was listening to West Midlands Sports while decorating my bedroom when it came on, couldn't believe what I was seeing when I turned telly on.
Don Goodman who was playing for Bradford that day lost his girlfriend in the fire.

God it was horrific, I recently watched footage of it as I wasn’t alive when it happened and was numb afterwards, completely shocking and needless loss of life. Why wasn’t there fire extinguishers there ??