Bradford Fire 1985

My mate who I was last night was at the game. How has 30 years passed so quickly!

was out with*

Yup time flies, the speed of the fire is incredible...I know health and safety is ridic these days, but things like Bradford/Heysel/Hillsbrough wouldn't happen any more..

unreal

Documentary on now on BT Sport (413) - pretty upsetting stuff.

Derek Dempsey, one of the victims was the only one I knew. Played snooker now and then with him at the WMC.He was featured on News At Ten just now, with an interview with his wife.

What was the actual cause ?

Don't think it was ever established for certain. There was an accumulation of rubbish beneath the stand and it's suggested that a discarded lit cigarette may have been the cause.

A discarded cigarette apparently.

If didnt know better, I would say looks like an accelerant was used

May 11, 2015 -- 11:42PM, casemoney wrote:

If didnt know better, I would say looks like an accelerant was used

The design of the stand, the wind on the day and the materials in the stand, all apparently helped to accelerate the speed in which the fire took hold and became so fierce, so quickly.

Wouldn't rule out arson

That's been discussed and ridiculed in the last few weeks.

hmmm , i recall part of the ridicule was why would they burn it down when it was uninsured

turns out it was insured and including a grant they received for rebuilding it totalled a £988,000 payout!

the guy that was on fire walking on the pitch died in hospital

bbc2 now

On April 17 2015 retired Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer highlighted in a report by the Telegraph & Argus that police were aware of an Australian man who admitted to starting the fire.[58] Following the 30th anniversary of the fire, a number of news organisations named this man as Eric Bennett who was visiting his nephew in Bradford from Australia and attended the game on the day.[59]. Following this report, Leslie Brownlie, who was the nephew in question is reported to have said that his Uncle never made such an admission of starting the fire, he is quoted as saying: "I don’t believe the statement of [retired Detective Inspector Raymond] Falconer at all. I don’t know where Falconer is getting this ****-and-bull story from… the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding.”[60]. Raymond Falconer's reliability had previously been questioned by Daniel Taylor in the Guardian who stated that: "The Bradford Telegraph and Argus described him as a ‘top detective’. He was actually one of the detectives involved in one of the gravest miscarriages of justices in the country, the Carol Wilkinson murder in Bradford, where someone was locked up for 20 years for a murder he didn’t commit."

tobermory
tobermory 12 May 15 02:35 Joined: 01 Mar 08 | Topic/replies: 37,291 | Blogger: tobermory's blog
the guy that was on fire walking on the pitch died in hospital Sad

Bloody hell, never knew that. Poor, poor chap. I will definitely never watch that again.

Very good documentary on this terrible story.

I didn't go to Valley Parade as an away fan until the next season , as the programme explained Bradford had not been in the second tier for decades , which is where my team Oldham were for 17 seasons.

So I only saw the new stand , we we always placed behind the goals.