Bradford fire disaster

[Gnasher]

Bloody hell,

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/15/bradford-fire-stafford-heginbotham-martin-fletcher?CMP=share_btn_tw

[cochyn]

Interesting. Though playing devil's advocate for a second - arson abounded in Bradford since it's mills closed down in the 70's. Still though - bloody hell indeed.

[Hooch]

Mad that, but find it difficult to think even the biggest cunt would do an arson job on a football ground during an actual match with people inside.

[Carvalho Diablo]

I hope this is just a terrible, terrible co-incidence.

 

Poor people.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Mad that, but find it difficult to think even the biggest cunt would do an arson job on a football ground during an actual match with people inside.

Even if it wasn't arson, the fact that over thirty of the 56 died at fire exits which were locked (for fear of people bunking in without paying) should have been enough to send the cunts responsible to prison.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

Mesmerising read. You think something is going to disprove it but it doesn't.

[skend04]

http://news.sky.com/story/1465808/police-will-consider-bradford-city-fire-claims

[Rico1304]

I've mentioned this before so forgive me for repeating myself but I used to work with a lad who was YTS at Bradford at the time of the fire. He told us that one of the players met a girl at a club, the next week got her and her dad tickets for a game...and they both died. Fucking horrific.

[King Emlyn]

Even if it wasn't arson, the fact that over thirty of the 56 died at fire exits which were locked (for fear of people bunking in without paying) should have been enough to send the cunts responsible to prison.

I never knew that, that's scandalous.

[FanchesterCity]

I used to work offshore, for a fire and gas protection company, so as part of that, I spent bit of time with the Fire Brigade, and of course as part of my job saw some amazing demonstrations of what fire can do....

 

People, even know, fail to appreciate just how rapidly a fire can spread. I know we've all seen the chip pan videos etc, but even those actually make people think 'oh it's not THAT fast then'. The problem is, it can take a short while before the fire becomes apparent, but by that time, the heat is rising at such an alarming rate it can be beyond control, and suddenly the entire roof is covered in flames and smoke.

 

And the heat.... honestly it's not like a bonfire where it's open air... an enclosed space with an aperture (like a stand) .... you could be stood at the other end of the pitch and thinking the heat is going to take your skin off soon. Even behind glass, heat radiates right through it... it's scary.

 

Like Hillsborough, it's frightening how a 'situation' can evolve within a couple of minutes. The repercussions might take a little while longer, but the essential situation is 'out of control' in very little time.

 

Count to 120 in your head, but imagine your normal 'exit routine' from the stadium. How you'll queue on the steps and finally get to the concourse, and exits. 120 seconds is NO time at all, and that's in an orderly manner. It's a sobering thought.

 

If any good came from Hillsborough and Bradford, it's that we can be feel a a hell of a lot safer now (but it's still not perfect).

Every last one of those victims made things safer for us. Just tragic they every had to in the first place.

[Beno]

Never understood why Bradford wasn't taken more seriuosly in terms of persuing the causes and consequences of the day. If that's true about exit doors being locked then surely somebody has to be held accountable. If that happened now somebody would be on the arse end of a long prison stretch.

As part of our fire awareness courses in work they used to show the stand going up from the moment you can see the fire and it is scary just how quick it spreads. It is a very scary and vivid watch. Leaves you utterly shocked thinking about the people trapped in there.

[FanchesterCity]

The doors locked issue is a bit more complex...

 

Bradford had locked some entrances (not exits) when then had one way turnstiles. They were locked after the last set of fans came into the ground.

 

They also had some exits with padlocks on (but be careful here with this). The padlocks didn't stop the doors from being opened in an emergency due to there being an alternative way to open the doors.

 

Of course now, it all reads like a sorry mess, and I suppose it was, but it wasn't so much any blocking of exits that was the significant issue, but too few a number of exits. There were water supply limitations too, and a lack of extinguishers (not that they'd have done much), and the number one factor... the highly combustible nature of the litter and stand construction.

 

It's also scary that just a fews later, despite Bradford illustrating the legitimate safety aspects of being able to get on the pitch, we were still being penned in behind fence at some grounds.

 

It also makes me think.... what are we doing today that people look back on and think 'what on earth were they thinking?'. For instance, I've been to a good few matches where fans have jumped up and down in unison... adding to the 'rocking' atmosphere if you will. But what happens if one day, a stand collapses? Someone's going to say 'why would you let 10,000 people jump up and down all at the same time?' There will be another disaster one day... and whatever causes it will probably be looked upon on downright careless.

 

City have two absolutely huge cranes in place at the Etihad right now and are performing stadium mods whilst fans are still attending. IF (heaven forbid) anything went wrong, people would say 'what the hell were you thinking constructing a new stand and roof, with huge cranes.... and holding matches in the middle of it!!!'... (similarly with Liverpool's new expansion).

 

We always like to think what we have now is such an improvement on what we used to have.... another disaster won't strike.... until it's too late.

 

We have these quaint grounds like Craven Cottage that (one assumes) will find it harder to comply with modern regulations than a brand new stadium. If there's an accident at Craven Cottage, we'll all say 'should have been modernised'.

 

And for stadiums in the midst of terrace housing? if that terracing ever proves to be a factor in a disaster, we'll all say it was obviously going to hinder emergency access, and why didn't we do something about it?