25 years ago today 56 football fans went out for the game and never returned. 265 more were sent to hospital with burns and other injuries. The majority of those who died were children or the elderly, who struggled to beat the crush to get out of the stadium.
Valley Parade, the home of Bradford City, started that day with celebration, as they had just secured promotion to Division 2.
However, just before half time, flames were noticed in the stands and they spread rapidly. Within four minutes the whole of the roof and the wood stands below had caught fire.
The cause of the fire is thought to have been the accidental dropping of a match or a cigarette stubbed out in a polystyrene cup and the resulting fire was fuelled by rubbish underneath the wooden stand.
The Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Bradford are set to hold a memorial service today in the city to remember those who lost their lives.
Our thoughts are with Bradford City today.
Man Utd News 24/7
That is such a tragedy. May their souls continue to rest in peace..
Horrible to see tragedies like this… 25 years on but the hurt is probably still as raw as ever for most. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones. And those who had to witness it. As Fez said, may they continue to RIP.
Incredible that a match or cigarette could have caused such carnage. Terrible tragedy
I seen some of the footage on Youtube and it is shocking. Brings a tear to the eye, especially when some of the same family members died in the tragedy. Just awfull.
Rest in Peace.
RIP
At the end it’s a game that we all go to to support our teams
And no matter what the outcome it should not equate to life or death
To those that went that day in celebration – you’ll never be forgotten
We are all the same – we may all have our different choices but our passion is equal
My thoughts also to the families of those lost that day.
R.I.P. It is devastating to see how vicious and fast the fire progressed, my thoughts are with the families.
A very sad day for football
.. I though after this they banned wooden seats in stadiums, however, I can’t understand how Everton STILL get away with putting us United fans in there cow shed of a stadium with wooden seats still there?!?. God bless..
My god I remember this like it was yesterday. Cannot believe it was 25 years ago. Nasty times then with Heysel, Hillsborough and this all in the space of 4 years.
We can relate to tragedies more than most. At the end of the day, you go to football for football, you don’t expect to never walk away.
RIP.
R.I.P.
…and Lincoln City. Two of LCFC’s fans were those that died in the fire; Mr Stacey and Mr West. A stand at Sincil Bank now bears their names.
RIP
RIP
Remember that like it was yesterday. Terrible tragedy, thoughts are with the families of lost loved ones.
A TRAGEDY THAT WAS FORGOTTEN BY THE WIDER NATION…due to scouse lunatics going on the rampage 3 weeks later at heysel….then came hillsborough and people forgot the bradford fire.
RIP to all those who perished at valley parade in 85
RIP.
RIP
R.I.P…Bradford….Theres a light that never goes out….
Remember it well. All thoughts with the Friends and Families of the Fans who perished.
I am to young to have any first hand knowledge of this tragic event, having noticed elsewhere of the 25th anniversary of the dreadfull day.I did my own research.Its a tremendous tribute to the Bantams that forever there after that they trim there kit with Black as a mark of respect.As a lad said in a prior post also Lincoln FC named a stand after the two souls from Lincoln that perished in the tragedy.
A glorious celebration turned into a human disaster.
To those people who lost there lives, may God be with you and RIP.
R.I.P
NICE ONE SCOTT ……IF YOU KNOW YOUR STUFF IT PUTS EVERYTHING INTO PWESPECTIVE GOD BLESS BRADFORD
i must admit to actually watching this as I think it was the BBC was live…. they stopped showing live footage when the first burning body was shown…..
RIP to all the fans that lost their lives and commiserations to all the relatives and survivors of this tragedy.
Hopefully this will never be repeated. I’m sure we were on the way home from the QPR game when we heard this – silence all the way back
Martin Fletcher was a 12 year old boy at the time. He went to the game with his Dad, granddad, brother, and uncle. He was the only one who came home.
He’s running a half marathon to raise money for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit at Bradford University’s Centre for Skin Sciences.
If you’d like to donate go to http://www.justgiving.com/fletcherfamilybradford
This could have been any of us – support a fellow football fan.