Players remember fire at Carrow Road Stadium in 1984

On October 25, 1984, players awoke to the news that the timber-framed City Stand at Carrow Road had been destroyed by an overnight blaze.

The fire service received a call at 3.25am and 35 firefighters were soon dousing the flames.

The plastic seats melted during the blaze and gaping holes were left in the roof (Image: Newsquest) Greg Downs, who played for Norwich City between 1976 and 1985, remembers the morning after the blaze well.

He said: "It was a strange feeling when we went down after training that day and saw the extent of the damage.

"There were lots of theories about what happened - one was that it was old and needed to be rebuilt, so someone took a match to it.

"Who knows what really happened.

"The phoenix came out of the fire, so to speak. It's a lovely ground now.

"But it was a strange time."

Greg Downs (left) played for Norwich City until 1985 (Image: Newsquest) During the blaze, the green and yellow plastic seats of the 49-year-old stand melted and flakes of asbestos from the roof left parts of the ground covered in a layer of fine white ash.

The club’s boardroom was gutted and cups and trophies were also badly damaged, club souvenirs and pennants were lost forever.

Norwich City manager Ken Brown surveys the damage following the Carrow Road fire in October 1984 (Image: Newsquest) Jeremy Goss, who played for NCFC between 1984 and 1996, recalled how the team used temporary cabins as changing rooms until the stand reopened in 1986.

He said: "We had portacabins at the stadium end of the ground that we got ready in for months. 

"I remember, when Steve Bruce scored the winning goal against Ipswich Town in the 1985 Milk Cup semi-final, we were still changing in the portacabins then.

"It is almost comical when you look back.

Jeremy Goss played for Norwich City until 1996 (Image: Newsquest) "I cycled past the stand the day after the fire and the engines were still there damping the blaze.

"So many trophies and memorabilia were lost and will never be replaced.

"It was a sad accident but no one's fault."

For 20 years the cause of the blaze had been blamed on an electrical fault.

But in 2004, Dick Cann, who was ball boy supervisor at the time, admitted he started the fire when he accidentally left a heater on after a reserves match.

The stand reopened after two years of work (Image: Newsquest) However, he was criticised by former key holder Jon Pollard, who said that Mr Cann should have taken that secret to the grave. 

The stand is now known as the Geoffrey Watling Stand in memory of the former president of Norwich City, who died in 2004.

BBC Radio Norfolk will be releasing an episode of Secret Norfolk in which players and fans remember the blaze on the anniversary.