Valley Parade fire

Luton Bee

Luton Bee

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Valley Parade fire

21 years ago today. RIP
 

Valley Parade fire

They used to show the video of the fire from start to finish at work on fire courses and it truely is shocking. RIP :(
 

Valley Parade fire

RIP.
 

Valley Parade fire

Such tragedy and my thoughts are with the families.

Though it's scant consolation, it was a story that went around the world and caused a rethink everywhere. Stadium firesafety changed from that day and we cannot possible know obviously how many other lives were actually saved in places like New Jersey, New Delhi and Riga.
 

Valley Parade fire

The Prophet said:
They used to show the video of the fire from start to finish at work on fire courses and it truely is shocking. RIP :(
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:imwith: I went on a fire training course thing recently and saw it - amazing and shocking how quickly the fire spread. Something like 4 minutes from the first puff of smoke to the stand being a complete inferno :eek:
 

Valley Parade fire

Wee Dave said:
:imwith: I went on a fire training course thing recently and saw it - amazing and shocking how quickly the fire spread. Something like 4 minutes from the first puff of smoke to the stand being a complete inferno :eek:
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Same here, and as I've posted before, the thing that astounded me the most was that nobody at the club actually called the fire brigade at any point. The local fire lads only turned up because they were watching the match at the station. :sad:

Anyone recall that they played at Bradford's rugby league ground Odsal while Valley Parade was being rebuilt, and Leeds fans went there and set a chip van on fire during a game? :(
 

Valley Parade fire

Streetboy said:
The local fire lads only turned up because they were watching the match at the station. :sad:
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They must have been listening to the radio as it was not televised live. The footage has been banned for showing on TV apart from the training videos as not to upset the families of the bereaved. This is partly why the tradegy remains largely forgotten.

The steelwork to replace the stand had arrived the day before - just one more game and it would have done its stint.
 

Valley Parade fire

A real tragedy, like others here I've seen the footage & it's something that will stay with me forever
 

Valley Parade fire

The other thing I found really interesting when I went on the course is that none of the deceased died due to burns - of the ones that weren't crushed, the rest were all smoke inhalation.

Fire sucks :(
 

Valley Parade fire

I seem to remember a news team sniffing around at GP just after and discovering a load of flammable rubbish under the New Road which had accumulated over the years.

Was the wooden section of this stand still in place in 1985?
 

Valley Parade fire

markbfc said:
They must have been listening to the radio as it was not televised live. The footage has been banned for showing on TV apart from the training videos as not to upset the families of the bereaved. This is partly why the tradegy remains largely forgotten.
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I seem to remember the fire being shown on Grandstand as a breaking news story (although it was probably just called news in those days! ) so the firemen might have seen that. From the footage they showed it looked like the stand was empty but obviously everything was happening at the back of the stand.
 

Valley Parade fire

Wee Dave said:
Oh, and plus the fire exit was padlocked shut 'n all :(
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Most died trying to escape through the toilets at the back thinking that was an exit too. :(

What's appalling when you look at the list is that Fletcher family lost a grandfather, his two sons and a grandson on what was meant to be one of the best days of their lives.

IN MEMORIAM

http://www.bradfordcityfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/HistoryDetail/0,,10266~91558,00.html

BRADFORD FIRE DISASTER

http://www.bradfordcityfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/HistoryDetail/0,,10266~91637,00.html
 

Valley Parade fire

A very sad day, makes you realise why we are lucky to still be able to watch football no matter what happens on the pitch

RIP
 

Valley Parade fire

A truly awful day, the sight of those flames was all over the news and the papers. It was the speed of how the flames engulfed the stand that really hit you.

I guess the question that was never answered was that if it had been terracing instead of seats would more people have got out by going onto the pitch?
 

Valley Parade fire

Stanley said:
A truly awful day, the sight of those flames was all over the news and the papers. It was the speed of how the flames engulfed the stand that really hit you.

I guess the question that was never answered was that if it had been terracing instead of seats would more people have got out by going onto the pitch?
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Maybe - but to be honest the fire spread so quickly - with so many stupid safety things (like fire exits locked) ****ed up - that it's hard to say.
 

Valley Parade fire

Stanley said:
I guess the question that was never answered was that if it had been terracing instead of seats would more people have got out by going onto the pitch?
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The other observation to be made is thank goodness there was not a big security fence in the front of the stand a la Hillsborough otherwise the death toll would have been in the hundreds.
 

Valley Parade fire

One of my best mates was there that day, he's my age so was 10 at the time. He was and still is a season ticket holder at Vally Parade. He was there with his uncle on the day as his dad was on duty (he was the copper who's hair was on fire). Ben still gets upset about the day and his dad cannot talk about it. I always drop a line to him on May 11th to let him know that other football fans still do remember this tragic incident.
 

Valley Parade fire

It is hard to believe it was so long ago. I watched a couple of seconds of it on the television but twas too upset to watch anymore.
 

Valley Parade fire

RitchBee said:
Didn't we play them in the fixture before that dreadful day ?.
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Yes we did at GP..
And we played Liverpool in the round before Hillsboro'...

It was a terrible terrible event that I must admit does seem to be forgotten to the media on the anniversary..
 

Valley Parade fire

This event must be never forgotton by football fans accross the UK.RIP the fans that deceased.
 

Valley Parade fire

Greenholme Bee said:
It was a terrible terrible event that I must admit does seem to be forgotten to the media on the anniversary..
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It got quite a bit of coverage last year, on the 20th anniversary.

Mark - I'm certain it was being shown live on Grandstand. Not that such a minor detail matters within the bigger picture of the tragic event.

A lot more people would have survived if they had headed for the pitch, but many headed for the back of the stand and were met by locked doors in the corridors, as someone else has mentioned.
 

Valley Parade fire

Streetboy said:
It got quite a bit of coverage last year, on the 20th anniversary.

Mark - I'm certain it was being shown live on Grandstand. Not that such a minor detail matters within the bigger picture of the tragic event
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It was actually being shown on ITV's World of Sport programme.Yorkshire TV were there recording the game for highlights to be shown the next day.John Helm was the commentator that day and even now he still can't bare to see any footage from that awful day. :(

RIP to the 56.
 

Valley Parade fire

What's often forgotten is that Lincoln City played there that day. Two Lincoln fans died that day - Bill West and Jim Stacey - and the Stacey-West end at Lincoln (stand that replaced the Railway End) is named in their memory.
 

Valley Parade fire

JAP said:
What's often forgotten is that Lincoln City played there that day. Two Lincoln fans died that day - Bill West and Jim Stacey - and the Stacey-West end at Lincoln (stand that replaced the Railway End) is named in their memory.
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That I did not know!:( . I remember that day well, like Hillsboro I knew exactly where I was when news came in of this tragic loss of life.

JAP....you coming over to GP next season? ;)

JB...
 

Valley Parade fire

My wife was working that day and she thought that they had said Brentford
over the radio. She nearly had heart failure.

Very sad day for Bradford.
I remember the bucket collectors from Bradford,
collecting money outside Wembley before our
Freight Rover final against Wigan.

RIP
 

Valley Parade fire

I was in that stand when we played them a few weeks before and it was a real mess under the stand lots of dirt and rubbish at least these days grounds are generally a safe place to visit.
 

Valley Parade fire

awful thing, RIP to the 56
 

Valley Parade fire

Always remembered, never forgotten.
 

Valley Parade fire

I remember it so vividly on the news when I got home after our game,think we at home to Hull that day. Also its so large for me because my Dad died suddenly the following Sat 18th May 25 years ago today,the day after we got to Wembly by walloping Newport. That month was also the a stadium disaster,the Heisel one qmk qmk qmk. My Dad was a good man and he was round my place on the 11th May,that was the last time. Thevents are so linked. The Vally Parade disaster was so vivid in its helplessness. I sat in that stand once tho other times we stood on the open end. It was like an end to an era,the streets around the ground were antiquated,the design of the ground where the back of the stand was street level one side and it dropped away the other onto a landscape of British Industrial Revolution of bygone ages. I kept a newspaper from Mon 13th May,was looking at it the other day,it was awful. I dont often get moved nowdays but on this day and looking at this and remembering I am moved very much. There is a brotherhood between supporters of teams like Brentford Bradford Lincoln etc which can never be breached
 

Valley Parade fire

JAP said:
What's often forgotten is that Lincoln City played there that day. Two Lincoln fans died that day - Bill West and Jim Stacey - and the Stacey-West end at Lincoln (stand that replaced the Railway End) is named in their memory.
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I knew abouth the supporters,did not know about the stand may they rip
 

Valley Parade fire

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