The inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Sir Oliver Popplewell and known as the Popplewell Inquiry, led to the introduction of new legislation to improve safety at the UK's football grounds. One of the main outcomes of the inquiry was prohibiting the construction of new wooden grandstands at all UK sports grounds.
At the time of the disaster, many stadiums had perimeter fencing between the stands and the pitch to prevent incidents of football hooliganism – particularly pitch invasions – which were rife during the 1980s. The main stand at Bradford was not surrounded by fencing, so the spectators were not penned in and so most of them were able to escape onto the pitch – if they had been penned in then the death toll could have been in the thousands. However, the turnstiles were locked and none of the stadium staff were present to unlock them – meaning that there was no escape for those who attempted to escape through the normal entrances and exits. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch.
The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. However, as there was no real precedent, most Bradfordians accepted that the fire was a terrible piece of misfortune. A discarded cigarette and a dilapidated wooden stand, which had survived because the club did not have the money to replace it, were considered to have conspired to cause the worst disaster in the history of the Football League.
