30 years ago today...

[Kernow Yellow]

...we were crowned Champions of Division 2 after thrashing Barnsley 4-0. It was my first season going to watch Us, and I celebrated on the pitch with everyone else, not quite believing that the following season we'd be hosting Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs and Arsenal week in week out.

And then we got in the car and switched on the radio and heard about the Bradford fire. As an 11-year old I didn't really understand what had happened and was too wrapped up in the excitement of our promotion. I remember that a young lad was also killed at St Andrews that day after a wall collapsed outside the ground during disturbances between Birmingham and Leeds fans. But we were becoming depressingly used to hearing of things like that.

But looking back it is of course completely shocking that 56 people went to football the same day I did, also to celebrate a promotion and a league championship, and never came home.

For those who haven't seen it, the Guardian has been serialising a new book by one of the survivors of the fire who lost several family members that day, including his 11-year-old younger brother. The book points out the history of fires at businesses owned by the then Bradford chairman and criticises the inquiry into the disaster. GreenMurphy's posts on Yellows Forum sum up the serialisation:

http://yellowsforum.co.uk/thread/20825/ ... -city-fire

[OUFC4eva]

I was sixteen at the time and remember us scoring
all the goals v Barnsley in the first half?

As you say news then came through of the fire at Valley
Parade and that Birmingham incident.

A month or so later saw the Heysel disaster in Brussels
which was sickening to watch.

It was a bad time for football.

[Dr Bob]

At my place of work, as part of fire training they still use the video of the Bradford fire to show just how quickly fire spreads. Awful.