It was the last game for the old main stand and it would have been a blatantly obvious occurance had it been an inside job. I think an Australian chap admitted to dropping a lit match or fag on the vicinity of where the flames were first spotted. The BBC did a very moving program about it a year or so back.
Coventry City fan investigated by employer after sick jibe at Bradford City fans (8 Viewers)
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It was the last game for the old main stand and it would have been a blatantly obvious occurance had it been an inside job. I think an Australian chap admitted to dropping a lit match or fag on the vicinity of where the flames were first spotted. The BBC did a very moving program about it a year or so back.
Hobo
Well-Known Member
If you are not suggesting it was arson, I doubt anybody would choose to do it on a match day?
I remembered Coventry had a stand burn down at Highfield Road overnight what's your view on that?
Bradford was a complete tragedy, horrific, I remember it well.
Hobo
Well-Known Member
It is not so much "social media seems to make people behave like idiots", but social media gives them a platform to promote their idiocy.
OffenhamSkyBlue
Well-Known Member
Of course it wasn't arson, FFS. That would have been mass murder. It was an accident waiting to happen with people smoking in an old wooden structure. Same immediate cause as the King's Cross fire two years later.
Esoterica
Well-Known Member
Agreed. Hope he does get the sack - for me it's just a modern form of natural selection. Cyber-Darwinism.
ajsccfc
Well-Known Member
Yeah it just makes it a lot easier to find. On Twitter you get to discover how many strangers are terrible people, and on Facebook you get to confirm it about people you know.
Grendel
Well-Known Member
You should at least read the book, or the serialisation of it and then see what your view is.
The CPS did I believe consider a manslaughter charge.
The person who survived and wrote the book did enormous research on the subject.
Moff
Well-Known Member
Sorry Bazza, I would respectively say in my eyes that mocking an incident where 56 people lost their lives and me calling the bloke that said it a complete idiot, are incomparable.
OffenhamSkyBlue
Well-Known Member
As someone with relatives who are Bantams fans, the suggestion that this could be passed off as "harmless banter" is ridiculous. IMHO, it is FAR more hurtful than someone suggesting that their city has a high South Asian population. You try getting away with a similar comment about Hillsborough at a Liverpool match.
OffenhamSkyBlue
Well-Known Member
Easy clickbait not requiring any proper investigative journalism, AJS. Telegraph through and through!
Nick
Administrator
Then there is the "reaction" article about it though
I don't like the whole witch hunt stuff, yeah the bloke said something and was a twat. Maybe let him apologise to the bradford trust, make a donation and be educated about it.
Nick
Administrator
To make it even better
Top flight journalism, would recommend to colleagues
Looks like somebody with a "tigger" from winnie the pooh picture is going to get some shit!
D
Deleted member 5849
Guest
Yeah I remember discussing it when released. Think on balance it's conspiracy theory, but a more plausible one than many.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Like Offenham says, it was very similar to the Kings Cross Fire, a dropped cigarette on an accumulation of litter and debris sitting under a wooden structure (stand and escalator in the Kings Cross case). Tragic accident, the impact of which could have been lessened, e.g. the gates being padlocked.
Nick
Administrator
I might try and find the documentary. So the gates were locked so people were trapped?
OffenhamSkyBlue
Well-Known Member
How things have moved on since those days. I was watching a clip recently of an old City match in about 87, and we were still all behind those 9ft fences, with no hope of escape if something went wrong (not to mention the endless monkey noises from opposition fans whenever Cyrille got the ball - disgusting).
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Sorry, no they weren't locked but looked like they were as there were padlocks in situ.
bezzer
Well-Known Member
If people aren't aware if what happened, read this -
Bradford City stadium fire - Wikipedia
The TV footage and commentary is quite harrowing.
Nick
Administrator
Awful reading that, live on TV as well.
Imagine watching a game on TV with a family member there.
SkyblueBazza
Well-Known Member
Oh I entirely agree. Venting such stuff is idiotic. Doing it in the knowledge that you have also told everyone who you work for is double-daft too. My niggle over this is the inconsistencies of organisations/employers/trades. Manager sacked; player reprimanded; journalists & politicians encouraged or respected for similarly idiocy all conducted in the organisation/employer's name
...onwards & upwards PUSB
Nick
Administrator
It baffles me why people would do that!
Captain Dart
Well-Known Member
Jesus, that's tragic.
rupert_bear
Well-Known Member
The Bradford fire. I have seen the complete footage of it during a safety briefing a few years ago, unbelievable really from the first puff of smoke to the whole stand being engulfed in flames is less than 4 minutes.
Hugh Jarse
Well-Known Member
Oh please, do you really think this is going to happen? So what, a few disenfranchised individuals who have taken great exception to this will close their accounts but this won't be a reason to sack him. Yes, he's been a tool and is probably $hitting Toblerones at this moment in time but I don't think he should get the sack.
fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
It's on youtube with John Helm commentating, it really is one of the most shocking videos around, far worse than Hillsborough or Heysel footage.
duffer
Well-Known Member
I'm not really one for conspiracy theories, but the chairman at Bradford was owned or connected to businesses that suffered a remarkable number of fires (Guardian graphic shown below).
In adjusted terms it's said he received insurance and fire-related payouts of over £27m over the years.
I'm not sure that I'd be quite so certain that Bradford was a tragic accident. It may have been, but there are definitely strong grounds for doubt, imho.
Nick
Administrator
I read that, but then I thought why on a match day?I'm not really one for conspiracy theories, but the chairman at Bradford was owned or connected to businesses that suffered a remarkable number of fires (Guardian graphic shown below).
In adjusted terms it's said he received insurance and fire-related payouts of over £27m over the years.
I'm not sure that I'd be quite so certain that Bradford was a tragic accident. It may have been, but there are definitely strong grounds for doubt, imho.
covmark
Well-Known Member
Just watched it for the first time. You're right, it's truly harrowing. The poor chap stumbling around completely on fire genuinely sent a shiver down my spine.
Horrendous.
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oscillatewildly
Well-Known Member
Totally agree. The guy's a knob, make no mistake but doesn't deserve dismissal. Make him do the end of day cashing up for a week or whatever other menial practice they do. Prank 'hold up' maybe when he's the only staff member in the branch. That'll learn him.
ajsccfc
Well-Known Member
That was the part I had to stop it, it's like something from a horror film. How anyone can use it for online 'banter' is beyond me.
Grendel
Well-Known Member
That's true.
Either way in pretty sure there had been letters sent to the chairman asking to resolve safety concerns which first he denied seeing and then had to admit he had.
There was a large bill coming.
It's not at all a bonkers conspiracy theory. It's a perfectly constructed case with lots of circumstantial evidence to support it.
The fact the game was on is the one thing that invalidates it. If it hadn't been then you'd say the evidence was compelling.
If there really had been 8 claims for fire related insurance in the past then that can't just be flicked away as a conspiracy.
Covstu
Well-Known Member
There are lines you don't cross in discussion forums, banter, in the crowd, social media etc and they are tragic events, racism to name but two and we have ticked those boxes this week sadly. Not great when we are looking for ally's in our plight and making enemies at every turn.
He should be warned by his employer but he won't get sacked. If he threatened to burn it down then that might be different
He should be warned by his employer but he won't get sacked. If he threatened to burn it down then that might be different
Lincoln City is my second club, and what happened on that day has always facinated me. I've read all the published material, and watched all the documentaries made about what happened. I came to the same conclusion - although something didn't quite seem right, it happened on a match day so must have been a tragic accident.
Having said that, there has always been a small doubt in the back of my mind, wondering if that was the exact reason why the fire occured in those circumstances - because it was a match day, beacuse it would seem so implausible, horrific, and evil for someone to plan for such an episode to occur in that scenario, that it wouldn't be questioned.