Valley Parade fire disaster

[No Fixed Abode]

30th anniversary this year. I assume the FA will start all games 40 minutes late?

Do actually have to drag the Chelsea/Liverpool rivalry into everything? There will be a minutes silence at every league game on the anniversary of the fire.

Why can't the FA be consistent? They delayed KO for Liverpool, so why not do the same for Bradford?

[Sutekh]

Possibly because Bradford are subject to FL jurisdiction in their competitions and Liverpool to the PL

Personally I don't believe there is any truth in it being deliberate for the simple reason that, as has already been expressed, the stand was going to be pulled down after the game anyway.

Just for the record the last 1st team game to be completed in front of that stand was Bradford City 2-5 Reading

[No Fixed Abode]

Possibly because Bradford are subject to FL jurisdiction in their competitions and Liverpool to the PL

:

But it was the FA's decision.

[Sanguine]

A thread about the Bradford City fire, something you've desired, started by 'a Liverpool fan' and on 15th April for that matter - and you're talking about Hillsborough?

[No Fixed Abode]

A thread about the Bradford City fire, something you've desired, started by 'a Liverpool fan' and on 15th April for that matter - and you're talking about Hillsborough?

No - I'm talking about delaying the KO by 40 minutes for the Bradford City fire.

[Winchester Royal]

Possibly because Bradford are subject to FL jurisdiction in their competitions and Liverpool to the PL

Personally I don't believe there is any truth in it being deliberate for the simple reason that, as has already been expressed, the stand was going to be pulled down after the game anyway.

Just for the record the last 1st team game to be completed in front of that stand was Bradford City 2-5 Reading

The stand is on the left in this pic, taken during the game between Reading and Bradford.

[Deadlock]

Startling and horrifying revelations in a new book about the Bradford City fire disaster, it is claimed that 8 previous businesses owned by the club's then chairman Stafford Heginbotham had fallen victim to fire.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... n-fletcher

First I've heard of this, has it been rumoured for some time that the fire was no accident?

Interesting programme on the fire on BBC2 this evening. Strong evidence that it was accidentally started by a dropped cigarette which the bloke tried to put out with a cup of coffee.

I'd never realised that Scunthorpe moved from the Old Show Ground because it was cheaper to build a new stadium than it was to upgrade the old one to comply with the recommendations of the Popplewell Report.

[Forbury Lion]

Fires at his other businesses notwithstanding, it seems unlikely to me that you would set a deliberate insurance fire with 1000's of potential witnesses present. I've not read the book but the author is a survivor who lost family members in the disaster so is he necessarily going to be approaching the subject with an open mind? It strikes me the author might be searching for a conspiracy that isn't there in order to give some meaning to his loss. Having said that, the JFT96 campaign probably had similar things said about them and look what's happening now.

Good post IMO, not much to be added.

Plus at a televised game too.

*perhaps* there was a plan to torch the stand at a future time/date and everything was setup in place for it to happen then a dropped cigarette started it off early.

I remember watching the game on TV live at my Grandparents house, The 80's were trully a terrible time for football with hooliganism, the Brandford fire, Hillsborough and Heysal (I'm sure there was another disaster with a stadium wall falling down, but regretfully I can't remember the name/details). However, the 80's were full of disasters with Zebrugge, Clapham train crash, Chenobyl and terrorism from the IRA etc etc.

Not forgetting the Reading station train crash, not a major disaster but local. edit: was in 1990

[Green]

Quite the social historian Forbes.

[tmesis]

Fires at his other businesses notwithstanding, it seems unlikely to me that you would set a deliberate insurance fire with 1000's of potential witnesses present. I've not read the book but the author is a survivor who lost family members in the disaster so is he necessarily going to be approaching the subject with an open mind? It strikes me the author might be searching for a conspiracy that isn't there in order to give some meaning to his loss. Having said that, the JFT96 campaign probably had similar things said about them and look what's happening now.

Good post IMO, not much to be added.

Plus at a televised game too.

*perhaps* there was a plan to torch the stand at a future time/date and everything was setup in place for it to happen then a dropped cigarette started it off early.

There really is nothing at all to suggest that this was anything other than an accident. The lack of 100% proof of how the fire started does not indicate there is doubt in the dropped cigarette theory.

Given the complete lack of any evidence to suggest it was arson, and no credible theory on how anyone could have started a fire in a packed stand with nobody seeing the person do it, there's little reason to be suspicious.


The JFT96 angle is very different. I've heard the odd journalist saying that the truth about Hillsborough has finally come out. It's not "finally come out" at all. It's been known about for 25 years. It's just taken this long for the authorities to admit it.

[From Despair To Where?]

I remember watching the game on TV live at my Grandparents house, The 80's were trully a terrible time for football with hooliganism, the Brandford fire, Hillsborough and Heysal (I'm sure there was another disaster with a stadium wall falling down, but regretfully I can't remember the name/details).

Pretty sure a wall collapsed during a Swansea Birmingham game and a couple of people died. I think it was at the Vetch.

Also those jolly Leeds fan setting fire to a chip van at Odsall the season after the fire.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Birmingham v Leeds wasn't it?

[No Fixed Abode]

It was a shame the FA didn't put back kick off time for this.

We know what's more important.......

[Mr Optimist]

Birmingham v Leeds wasn't it?

It was, on the same day as Hillsboro so gets completely overlooked. A 15 year old Birmingham fan died when a 12 foot wall collapsed during fighting between Leeds and Brum's fans. Was his first visit to St Andrews too.

If you look at the pictures of that day you will see why, in a decade of football violence, it was considered one of the worst incidents that happened. Danny Dyer would have shat himself and hid in the bogs.

[tmesis]

Birmingham v Leeds wasn't it?

It was, on the same day as Hillsboro

Same day as Bradford.

If you look at the pictures of that day you will see why, in a decade of football violence, it was considered one of the worst incidents that happened.

Luton v Milwall and Chelsea v Sunderland (when Chelsea lost the League Cup semi final at Stamford Bridge) were often thought of as the worst, I'd say, but that's also because both were on tv.

Danny Dyer would have shat himself and hid in the bogs.

He'd have done that just hearing Y26 sing "who are ya?" at 300 Wigan fans.

[Mr Optimist]

Sorry I meant Bradford you are right, particularly as I was answering on a thread about the Bradford fir, doh!

I remember the Chelsea v Sunderland match, possibly the same season 84-85? Chelsea v Boro play off final second leg at the Bridge was special in 87, I was at that one. Another memorable one is Leeds bank holiday Trip to Bournemouth in 89?

[From Despair To Where?]

I stand corrected about the collapsed wall.


I was sure there was a death involving Swansea in the 80's but i might be mistaking it for that kid who got crushed by a police horse at Rotherham about 15 years ago.

[Ascotexgunner]

Weren't 300 odd killed in a Moscow during a game during the 80s?

[Franchise FC]

Possibly because Bradford are subject to FL jurisdiction in their competitions and Liverpool to the PL

Personally I don't believe there is any truth in it being deliberate for the simple reason that, as has already been expressed, the stand was going to be pulled down after the game anyway.

Just for the record the last 1st team game to be completed in front of that stand was Bradford City 2-5 Reading

The stand is on the left in this pic, taken during the game between Reading and Bradford.

I'm somewhere in that picture

Gives me goosebumps to think it could've been us

[Dai Brainbocs]

Just watched the BBC2 documentary, apparently people trying to get out of the front of the stand had to jump down a five-foot wall into an enclosure and then over another one onto the pitch.

The police even tracked down which seat it started from and when they knocked on the door of the man responsible he'd been expecting them to call. The survivor (or rather his publisher) made monkeys of the media by getting such prominence given to his "arson" theory when it was such patent bollocks, at least the part related to the football fire rather than the factories.