Remembering Valley Parade
I was reading the BBC Sport website last week and was very surprised to read some of the comments on the blog done by the Football Focus team - they did the show from Bradford not this past weekend, but the one before as that was Bradford's last home game of the season.
The reasons for my surprise? The fact that a number of fans, old enough to have been around at the time, didn't seem to know about the fire at Valley Parade which killed 56 fans and injured over 200 more.
This tragic event happened 25 years ago today. The day started as one of celebration as the team had won the (old) 3rd division title (now Division One). But 40 minutes into the first half, smoke started to rise from the beneath the main stand (believed to come from a cigarette but lighting rubbish underneathe the stand) and within a couple of minutes the old wooden stand was totally ablaze.
The speed with which the fire spread is shocking, within a couple of minutes it was engulfed as the fire rolled up the back of the stand then exploded across the roof. That speed is one reason the video of it is still used to this day to show how quick a blaze can spread. I was shown it in the health & safety induction at my job for instance.
Maybe it became overshadowed by Heysel (which happened a couple of weeks later) in people's minds, I don't know (and I don't know why), but it's a shame that more people, football fans and non-fans alike, aren't aware of this tragic loss of life.
Many of those who died did so after trying to get out of the back of the stand but finding the exits locked - with fire behind them leaving no way out. The one thing to be thankful for was that this happened before they put the fences up, as many escaped onto the pitch, I dread to think what the death toll could have been otherwise... And the fact that they needed to keep the roads cleared around the ground meant all the fans were kept in the ground, witnesses to what unfolded...
And as is often the case in these situations, there were those little things that came together to create the nightmare...
The stand in question had long been known to be a danger and it was due to be taken down on the Monday after the game. Also the wind normally goes in a certain direction there, but that day it blew in the opposite direction, which fanned the flames...
Anyway, here are some videos and links...
This is the radio commentary from the game & really expresses the horror as it unfolded - still chilling & heartbreaking all these years later...
BBC Football Focus - 1 May 2010
Bradford marks Valley Parade stadium fire 25 years on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/8673825.stm
Twenty five years on: The Valley Parade fire remembered: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bradford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8659000/8659492.stm
Remembering the Bradford City fire (audio slideshow): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8668479.stm
Bradord fire 'will live with me forever' (Gabby Logan, BBC presenter and daughter of Terry Yorath who was on the coaching staff at Bradford 25 years ago): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8648794.stm
BBC news report at the time: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8673107.stm
Report on funerals for the victims: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8673683.stm
Mirror story on Karl Hopton who attended the game with his grandmother - she pushed him out of a broken window and saved his life, but didn't get our herself:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/05/08/bradford-fire-25-years-on-i-owe-grandma-my-life-she-died-for-me-115875-22243161/
Bradford remembers fire victims 25 years on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/11/bradford-remembers-football-fire-victims
And lastly, but most importantly, the names of 56 men, women & children who lost their lives that day:
http://www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk/page/History/0,,10266~91558,00.html
The reasons for my surprise? The fact that a number of fans, old enough to have been around at the time, didn't seem to know about the fire at Valley Parade which killed 56 fans and injured over 200 more.
This tragic event happened 25 years ago today. The day started as one of celebration as the team had won the (old) 3rd division title (now Division One). But 40 minutes into the first half, smoke started to rise from the beneath the main stand (believed to come from a cigarette but lighting rubbish underneathe the stand) and within a couple of minutes the old wooden stand was totally ablaze.
The speed with which the fire spread is shocking, within a couple of minutes it was engulfed as the fire rolled up the back of the stand then exploded across the roof. That speed is one reason the video of it is still used to this day to show how quick a blaze can spread. I was shown it in the health & safety induction at my job for instance.
Maybe it became overshadowed by Heysel (which happened a couple of weeks later) in people's minds, I don't know (and I don't know why), but it's a shame that more people, football fans and non-fans alike, aren't aware of this tragic loss of life.
Many of those who died did so after trying to get out of the back of the stand but finding the exits locked - with fire behind them leaving no way out. The one thing to be thankful for was that this happened before they put the fences up, as many escaped onto the pitch, I dread to think what the death toll could have been otherwise... And the fact that they needed to keep the roads cleared around the ground meant all the fans were kept in the ground, witnesses to what unfolded...
And as is often the case in these situations, there were those little things that came together to create the nightmare...
The stand in question had long been known to be a danger and it was due to be taken down on the Monday after the game. Also the wind normally goes in a certain direction there, but that day it blew in the opposite direction, which fanned the flames...
Anyway, here are some videos and links...
This is the radio commentary from the game & really expresses the horror as it unfolded - still chilling & heartbreaking all these years later...
Click to viewBBC Football Focus - 1 May 2010
Bradford marks Valley Parade stadium fire 25 years on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/8673825.stm
Twenty five years on: The Valley Parade fire remembered: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bradford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8659000/8659492.stm
Remembering the Bradford City fire (audio slideshow): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8668479.stm
Bradord fire 'will live with me forever' (Gabby Logan, BBC presenter and daughter of Terry Yorath who was on the coaching staff at Bradford 25 years ago): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8648794.stm
BBC news report at the time: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8673107.stm
Report on funerals for the victims: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8673683.stm
Mirror story on Karl Hopton who attended the game with his grandmother - she pushed him out of a broken window and saved his life, but didn't get our herself:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/05/08/bradford-fire-25-years-on-i-owe-grandma-my-life-she-died-for-me-115875-22243161/
Bradford remembers fire victims 25 years on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/11/bradford-remembers-football-fire-victims
And lastly, but most importantly, the names of 56 men, women & children who lost their lives that day:
http://www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk/page/History/0,,10266~91558,00.html