RIP The 56

[Silvio Dante]

…38 years ago today, Bradford City Vs Lincoln City. Bradford having won the league. A wooden stand was engulfed in flames and 56 fans didn’t come home.

The anniversary gets lost sometimes and overshadowed by Hillsborough, but it’s one that I remember vividly. This was teams around our level. These were fans who were in what should have been a safe area. And it was utterly, utterly horrific.

The video of the stand going up is available on YouTube - I believe it is used as training for Firefighters. The sheer speed is unfathomable.

RIP

[Dredd]

The video is horrific. The speed at which the fire spreads is insane. 
RIP

[Robbored]

That horrifying disaster was 38years ago? Wow that’s a real surprise to me. I actually remember it pretty well and would have guessed that it wasn’t that long ago.

Memory playing tricks again - must be age related……….………

Edited May 11, 2023 by Robbored

[ralphindevon]

Yes remember it well, truly shocking.

I know we all get fed up with health and safety nowadays but when you look back at that how the hell could that not be seen as an accident waiting to happen? 

[Davefevs]

My bruv-in-law was meant to be on duty that day, but a colleague asked if he’d swap as he had something on the following week.

[Super]

They used the video in a Fire Marshall's course i was on. Never been in a room so quiet.

[Red Cloud]

54 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

My bruv-in-law was meant to be on duty that day, but a colleague asked if he’d swap as he had something on the following week.

did his colleague survive?

[Robbored]

55 minutes ago, Super said:

They used the video in a Fire Marshall's course i was on. Never been in a room so quiet.

Yep - we were shown that video on our mandatory annual fire lectures. it’s always had quite an impact. The various retired Firefighters who conducted the talks all used it to show how rapidly fire can spread. I reckon I must have seen at least 25 times and it never reduced its impact on me or anyone else that had seen it several times before.

Such a terrible tragedy……………..

[Galley is our king]

1 hour ago, Super said:

They used the video in a Fire Marshall's course i was on. Never been in a room so quiet.

Yep, they used it on a fire risk assessment course I went on, you could hear a pin drop.

[phantom]

2 hours ago, Dredd said:

The video is horrific. The speed at which the fire spreads is insane. 
RIP

I haven't watched it back in many years but I can still picture the images of some of the people on fire

Truly horrific

This was posted by the BBC in 2015, but still very informative Bradford fire: The Valley Parade disaster 30 years on - BBC Sport

[slartibartfast]

I remember going to Valley Parade that season and saying to my mate " wouldn't like to get caught in a fire down here" never thinking a couple of months later that's what happened !

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, Red Cloud said:

did his colleague survive?

Yes.

FWIW my bruv-in-law was on duty at Hillsborough unfortunately.  There is one pretty “iconic” (wrong word probably) photo in the ground in the aftermath, in which he appears.  He never talks about it.  He left the police shortly afterwards, which probably says a lot about things!

[REDOXO]

30 minutes ago, slartibartfast said:

I remember going to Valley Parade that season and saying to my mate " wouldn't like to get caught in a fire down here" never thinking a couple of months later that's what happened !

Did we draw 1:1 or was that the season before. I remember saying to Terry Cooper as the coach arrived, are we going to win today? His answer. I don’t ducking know! Not a thought of an answer that wasn’t fully availed of his thoughts.  

[slartibartfast]

4 hours ago, REDOXO said:

Did we draw 1:1 or was that the season before. I remember saying to Terry Cooper as the coach arrived, are we going to win today? His answer. I don’t ducking know! Not a thought of an answer that wasn’t fully availed of his thoughts.  

Yes, they were top and we were near the bottom....good point .

[GrahamC]

4 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

I remember going to Valley Parade that season and saying to my mate " wouldn't like to get caught in a fire down here" never thinking a couple of months later that's what happened !

Went to that one as well.

Won’t claim to have said anything similar at the time, as loads of grounds were dangerous potential death traps then.

Do remember thinking of it though when it happened, basically an ancient wooden structure.

We definitely took our life in our hands watching football back then.

[Ciderhead433]

Played football that day at having an end-of-season drink then came on the telly. 

Unavailable to watch fire spread so fast

[archie andrews]

1 hour ago, slartibartfast said:

Yes, they were top and we were near the bottom....good point .

84 85 season they might have been top when we played them but we right up there too nowhere near bottom slarts.....

[REDOXO]

2 hours ago, slartibartfast said:

Yes, they were top and we were near the bottom....good point .

Walsh?

[slartibartfast]

22 minutes ago, REDOXO said:

Walsh?

No, he hadn't joined then. Something in the back of my mind says Forbes P M, but could be well wrong .

[slartibartfast]

51 minutes ago, archie andrews said:

84 85 season they might have been top when we played them but we right up there too nowhere near bottom slarts.....

I'm on about Div 4 .

[REDPJ]

10 hours ago, ralphindevon said:

Yes remember it well, truly shocking.

I know we all get fed up with health and safety nowadays but when you look back at that how the hell could that not be seen as an accident waiting to happen? 

It was. HSE flagged it up but insufficient corrective action taken.

[ralphindevon]

1 hour ago, REDPJ said:

It was. HSE flagged it up but insufficient corrective action taken.

Sadly it was at a time when the pure hatred of football fans by the government and many others was at its height. We really were treated worse than animals all across the country and Europe. 

[Offside]

My thoughts are with everyone affected by that terrible tragedy. RIP the 56. 

[22A]

On 11/05/2023 at 10:31, Dredd said:

The video is horrific. The speed at which the fire spreads is insane. 
RIP

Agreed. We were shown the film at work as part of "Fire Awareness". What I noticed is that people standing at the ends were able to move away whereas those sat were tripping on the seat legs and having to squeeze out sideways.

The Lincoln players later flew off for a short foreign holiday and the return flight had "an eventful landing". The following year Lincoln were relegated and the year after that dropped from the League to The Conference (as was).

[Red-Robbo]

Remember watching it happen live on World Of Sport. It was an utterly jaw-dropping moment and the magnitude of the disaster soon became obvious. Many of the dead hadn't even left their seats.

Like others, I watched it a second time when the YTV footage was used on a fire-warden course I went on for an old employer.

[Akira]

Absolutely tragic. Thoughts go out to all those affected. 

One question though, forgive my naiveness, but how did so many die? When you watch the video, it looks like the whole stand gets cleared out? Or would it possibly have a concourse like the Dolman and this is possibly where people may have been trapped? 

[Silvio Dante]

13 minutes ago, Akira said:

Absolutely tragic. Thoughts go out to all those affected. 

One question though, forgive my naiveness, but how did so many die? When you watch the video, it looks like the whole stand gets cleared out? Or would it possibly have a concourse like the Dolman and this is possibly where people may have been trapped? 

As I understand it, a large number died when they tried to exit the stand at the rear where the turnstiles/gates were locked. Such was the speed of the spread, there was no chance for them to take an alternate route (ie towards the pitch) once that decision was made

[Super]

2 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

As I understand it, a large number died when they tried to exit the stand at the rear where the turnstiles/gates were locked. Such was the speed of the spread, there was no chance for them to take an alternate route (ie towards the pitch) once that decision was made

Pretty sure it only took 5 mins for the whole stand to be engulfed in flames.

[fisherrich]

On 11/05/2023 at 13:22, slartibartfast said:

I remember going to Valley Parade that season and saying to my mate " wouldn't like to get caught in a fire down here" never thinking a couple of months later that's what happened !

I went in 1984 to Valley Parade to watch City.
Bristol City played Bradford City in in a top of the table clash if memory serves me right.
Never did I realise what was to unfold the following year. Some Bristol City fans were in that stand that day v Bradford. Harrowing.

[Enclosure Old Timer]

32 minutes ago, Akira said:

Absolutely tragic. Thoughts go out to all those affected. 

One question though, forgive my naiveness, but how did so many die? When you watch the video, it looks like the whole stand gets cleared out? Or would it possibly have a concourse like the Dolman and this is possibly where people may have been trapped? 

The only exits in that stand were at the back which led to a very dingy corridor where the main exits out of the ground were. It was general practice to keep these doors locked until 10 minutes or so before the end of the match and it was in this corridor where most of the deaths occurred.