30 years next year, so i guess there will be remembrance events then. 1985 truly was a dire year for English football. I remember going on a school trip in Dec 85 to Italy. All the bars and clubs in the resort had posters on the door saying 'No English', following Heysel. RIP 56.
Dreadful scenes. Disappointing that no sort of remembrance was held today at grounds across the country. RIP the 56.
as with both Valley Parade and Hillsborough , its crazy so see how the emergency services were so ill equipped . It wasnt that long ago that an ambulance was nothing more than a taxi with a bed and a right to go through a red light . . . nothing more ! RIP
I always use this as an example when scousers are shrieking about the 96. I'm not for one minute saying one tradegy is worse than the other. However one included little Bradford City and the other included Scousers. If it's a choice between dignity and shouting the loudest, Scousers shouting will always win. if there wasn't any silence at the grounds today then I am truly appalled. It seems there are 5 or 6 things a year around the Hillsbrough disater, and this never gets a mention. How are the life's of 96 people more important to the general public than the life's of 56?
agreed, i did an A level english writing piece on the bradford fire and it's effects absolutely horrific really don't understand how there's no proper remembrance of such a tragic day
You may have missed the news recently, but it was also the police who were tampering with evidence by instructing people to change their statements and lie about events.
My wife and I were in that old wooden stand a few weeks before the fire and she commented on how much paper and trash there was below our seats. The exits were very narrow and I can only imagine the horror of those who fled UP the aisles only to find the exits locked with no way back through the inferno to the safety of the pitch. So tragic...RIP the 56!!
My thoughts exactly. I will wait to see what all the Liverpool fans say on 29th May and the anniversary of Hysel. Always another strangely quiet day.
No, I didnt miss the news recently. The news is my job. You said 'Unless Bradford fans were accused of pissing on and robbing from the dieing victims' and the police never made any such suggestions.
I wrote a paper on this disaster a few years ago. The reason the fire spread so fast was because the roof had only very recently been repaired, but with bitumen & felt. As the flames caught the roof, the bitumen melted and burned, falling to the stand and starting more fires. The burning bitumen also fell directly onto the people in the stand. We watched a very graphic film taken at the time of the fire showing people walking out of the fire engulfed in flames with selfless people putting out the flames with their bare hands to help them. Some of those images, still haunt me now and I wasn't there. There should be a memorial or two minutes silence at the very least for these people. The people of Bradford should be extremely proud of the way people on the day and since then have conducted themselves. R.I.P the 56
From looking at it it seems like the fire starts and spreads on the ground in the stand and the roof only catches fire later on, after it's already spread a long way.
Agreed! If you read what I put, I have pretty much said as such... "As the flames caught the roof, the bitumen melted and burned, falling to the stand and starting more fires." To be clear, the video at the beginning of the thread is different to the one I saw at Uni, with much more graphic footage. If you look at the video though, the bitument sheets I refer to are clearly visible.
But surely the fact it spread the entire height of the stand was a problem even before bitumen and felt came into it?
No not at all. The roof, caught at the back and began dropping the hot bitumen (melted and in flame) which then caught futher along the stand rapidly engulfing it. The roof compounded the problem, but the rubbish under the stand was the cause of the seat of the fire (and subsequent spread). All I can say is I passed my paper and the video at the beginning of the thread is not all of the evidence presented. Under close observation (as part of my paper and the video I saw), burning bitumen could be seen dropping from the roof creating more seats of fire further along and causing severe burns to the casualties. This does not detract anything away from the loss of life in what must have been a truely horrific event both for the immediate victims and the those present at the ground on that day, which of course should be remembered and suitable silence held.
To try and make up for the fact that there's no minutes silence to mark this tragic event, the Arsenal fans are planning on a minutes applause on 56 minutes on Saturday, they're asking us to join them. I'm in.
