30 years ago today..

I think we lost the youth cup on the friday and beat spurs on the Saturday at the lane 1 - 5, remember watching the scenes in a rumblelows shop window eating chips just thinking it was a fire and did not know people had died until we got home, think a Birmingham fan died that day as well when a wall fell down after crowd trouble. Really dreadful day, does not get nearly as much coverage as the hillsborough disaster.

 

Terribly sad, even after 30 years. You have to feel for all those whose lives were impacted that day.

Football is a different world now & although the changes have not all been for the good, at least safety is something that has improved immeasurably.

 

So much for the latest conspiracy book. The Bradford fire was accidentally caused by a dropped cigarette that fell through a knothole in the floorboards ... the owner of it, an Australian, even tried to put it out with coffee and then alerted the police when he couldn't. It was that fierce they simply could not get everybody out in time.

australian-man-dropped-cigarette-that-started-bradford-city-fire

Of course this doesn't excuse the laxity of Bradford City's then owner towards fire safety, it would be corporate manslaughter by today's standards almost without doubt.

 

I was on the Schrodells terrace once and Ron Rollitt (the secretary) ran round with a fire extinguisher as there was a slight sign of smoke coming off the stand. It turned out to be nothing but it could have been another disaster

Anyone else remember this?

 

This month's 'When Saturday Comes' magazine has a couple of sobering articles on the Bradford Fire and Heysel on consecutive pages.
I just about managed to maintain my composure reading them on the Northern Line this morning.