The 1985 Bradford City A.F.C stadium fire is regarded as one of the worst disasters in the history of British football. What started as smoke rising from a rickety wooden stand quickly progressed to raging, all consuming blaze. In the space of 4 minutes the wooden stand at Valley Parade was totally destroyed and when the dust had settled, 56 people had lost their lives.
The entire incident took place during a match that was being televised with the footage captured still being used to this day in lessons about fire safety to demonstrate how quickly a blaze can take hold and wreak havoc.
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This year marks the 36th anniversary of this tragedy. RIP to the 56 that sadly lost their lives that day.
I have seen footage of this disaster and a lot of tossers in the crowd were celebrating on the pitch as the stand went up in flames.
I remember that day when a man walked out like a human torch covered in flames and police officers who tried to save him were trying to beat out the flames from his body and their hair caught fire from the heat from the human torch but Sadly the man died
I m not sure why anyone would go UP towards the fire. I would most definitely go to the field. It's sad most were children but 56 that's amazing concidering 11,000 people were there
You ought to cover the Hillsborough Disaster.
Too little brains,and too much victim blaming here
I was on a bus passing the ground that day. We could see the fire clearly. It was horrific and seeing it on the news later, it was worse than I thought.
This channel is the only one that covers true crime and terrible disasters that is also relaxing at bedtime bc of the narrator's wonderful, calming, relaxing voice.
How is this only one of the worst disasters in the history of British football? What the hell is going on over there?
It's universal that safety reports are ignored.
Great channel! You got me hooked! Cheers from Brazil!
How many decided to quit smoking? Very few, one would imagine.
What an awful tragedy, all this lives lost in such a horrific way.
I heard about this in the States. I remember the pictures of the flames. RIP 56. 🙏
Request: Can you cover the Aberfan tragedy from 1966?
Hey so I found your podcast on Sunday at 4am couldn't sleep but so happy I found OT love your voice. story s. are great. thxs keep them come ING. and love the title lol. Amen
I've never heard of this.. 💔
I worked in the Comet store in Lincoln at the time and the whole thing played out on dozens of tv screens, everyone in the store, staff and customers alike stopped what they were doing.
a really terrible disaster that wood have been much..much….much bigger had it not been for heroic people like julie walkers grand-father who saved scores of people from severe burns injury or worse………….
I have used the Valley Parade fire video in Fire Awareness traing for years, I always explain how bad it is before showing and give people who don't want to watch it the option to leave the room for five minutes. Every time the result was the same, shocked silence!
I'm from Bradford and I was 10at the time…it was terrible, you could see the smoke from my back garden .I never realised what an indelible imprint that had made on memory
I've had to watch this twice in full for fire marshal training; it never gets easier to watch and I find myself hiding the tears.
And no matter what anyone says about Mrs T. She went to a lot of disaster sites. For that I admire her.
This is why smoking & or smoke grenades are STRICTLY BANNED & ARE FORBIDDEN!!! at football grounds & other sport stadiums. & quite rightly so. It was so misfortunate for this to happen just like the Hillsborough 96 ( a similar situation not fire but many lost their lives) but, that was down to STUPIDITY of a so called senior command officer who still doesn't know his arse from his elbow & never will. But when i heard & saw this fire i was absolutely HORRIFIED by it. Even though i am not a Bradford fan or live in Bradford. That doesn't go to say i am not without feelings. I am a BIG LIVERPOOL fan & proud to live in Liverpool But, when i hear of such devistation& horror like this. I am beside myself thinking those poor people that sadly never make it out alive. & their relatives have to live with itvfor the rest of their lives without their loved ones. As we did here about those from Hillsborough R.I. P to those who sadly lost their lives at both stadiums.
The police/fire brigade video is shown for stewards at some grounds. A police officer was walking on the pitch and his hair spontaneously burst into flames. The clip will remain with me forever. Thank god sa
RIP ynwa
Yep, and a copper stopped a window cleaner from dowsing the fire with his bucket of water. Coppers ah….
How got it out ?
And wow just watched the original Video of the fire. It's difficult to comprehend how people could die if they could get up and run but then you see the video and you realize. It took over the stand within minutes so you had three to four minutes to evacaute thousands of people who had to climb over stairs. People in the back began burning and you could see people hopping out covered in flames. I can't believe something this tragic isn't as well known as the racing incident. Or the hot air Balloon that killed so many people.
Man the guilt that guy who lit the cigarette must have felt. I'd have quit smoking after that. O.o.
I was watching the game 'live' on TV. I just remember this tragedy unfolding as if I was in a dream or watching a movie but knowing all the time it was so dreadfully real. It made a very lasting impression. I would have been 20 at the time. The strange thing for me is that this was a 3rd division league game, not even a cup match so for the TV cameras to be there was quite strange really. I'm now wondering if that was a good thing or not ? Truly dreadful and even hurt a lot of people who weren't there. Let's live life to the full in honour of all those affected.😊
Why is this presenter making this tragedy sound like a comedy event?
I saw this on Disturban so sad.
‘Disasters’ are usually unpredictable or occur due to a sequence of bad errors. This was totally forseeable. Complete lack of a safety culture putting innocent people at risk. Truly shocking.
Absolutely horrific , such a terrible day for the city of Bradford and football in general , sadly not remembered as it should be .
Heartbreaking!
I was only 7yrs old and was watching tv at my nan and grandad's house. I will never forget seeing those scenes of people literally on fire 😢😢 RIP to the 56 poor souls that perished.
We have recently been through the ground grading requirements from the FA, at our level we only require a small grandstand, clearly this was a lesion learnt, absolutely no wood, our new stand is all metal.
Thanks for sharing the story in such a respectful way. Such an awful tragedy that so easily could've been avoided. Thoughts go out again, like they do every May, to the 56 lost souls.
A tragic day ! It was live on TV I think!☹️
Was anyone sent to prison over this ?