The scene in there was one of silence and shock. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard. A discarded cigarette and a dilapidated wooden stand, which had survived because the club did not have the money to replace it, and accumulated paper litter, were considered to have conspired to cause the worst disaster in the history of the Football League. All you could hear was sirens and screams. [8][9] In the crowd were local dignitaries and guests from three of Bradford's twin townsVerviers in Belgium, and Mnchengladbach and Hamm in West Germany. I don't know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding. Since then, it has been further re-developed and, today, Valley Parade is a modern 25,136 all-seater stadium, which is virtually unrecognisable from how it was at the time of the disaster, save for the original clubhouse that still stands beside the main stand, and the flank support wall that runs down the Hollywell Ash Lane at the "Bradford End". On 11 May 1985 a blaze ripped through Bradford City stadium's wooden structure in minutes as the club played Lincoln City in an end of season match. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. Helm later described the start of the fire in an interview to the Express newspaper: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, [A] man over from Australia visiting his son got two tickets to the game. ", "If the inquiry is opened again, we will await to see what evidence there is to prove is wasn't an accident," he says. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. The speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. He asks the reader to make their mind up about whether these fires were a coincidence or not.". Burning timber and molten material began to fall onto the seating below and black smoke enveloped the passageway behind, where fans were trying to escape. The extinguishers were put there so that they would be out of the way of fans who could use them as missiles, which apparently had happened previously. Part of the service was also held in Urdu and Punjabi as a sign of appreciation to the local ethnically Asian Subcontinental community in Manningham, Bradford and around Valley Parade who had opened their homes to Bradford City supporters to provide assistance in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. People were clambering over the wall on to the ground with their clothes and hair on fire. Spreading with almost unbelievable speed, a small fire under a wooden bench consumed the entire stand in under four minutes.Original TV footage: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x31qcmtIf you would like to support this channel - https://buymeacoffee.com/TheRavensEyeAlthough focused primarily on disasters, this channel is all about the interesting, the strange, the unsolved, the tragic. There has been reports of people lighting paper under the seats, and it was important that as many fans as possible who were in the stand or at the Kop end contacted the police. [citation needed] Spectators later spoke of initially feeling their feet becoming warmer; one of them ran to the back of the stand for a fire extinguisher but found none. [citation needed] Mathew Wildman, aged 17 at the time of the fire, commented that "I must have had five different experiments carried out on me with all sorts of new techniques for skin grafts and I had potions injected into me that helped my face repair naturally over time. Fletcher, who was 12 at the time of the fire, does not make any direct allegations but he does believe Heginbotham's history with fires resulting in payouts of around 27m in today's terms warrants further investigation. Exactly 79 years to the day after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, another tragic fire occurred in New York City. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. It spelt out 'thank you fans'. " Burning Man," " Burning Man Project," " Black Rock City ", and . Although some attributed Lincoln City's sudden demise to the psychological effects of the fire on its players (together with the resignation of successful manager Colin Murphy shortly before the fire), it symbolised the wider crisis that the introduction of new safety legislation brought to Lincoln's Sincil Bank home. It transpired that the wooden stand had already been condemned and was set to be demolished just two days after the tragedy. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. Each year Lincoln send representatives to the annual memorial service in Bradford city centre and between 2007 and 2009, were managed by Bradford's captain that day, Peter Jackson. Police had an official photographer at the game, watching for crowd disturbance. Someone came in and shouted: 'Get out, get out there's a fire'. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. All that was left of. "We wouldn't normally have covered that game - no question about it. "[23], On the 25th anniversary of the fire, the University of Bradford established the United Kingdom's largest academic research centre in skin sciences as an extension to its plastic surgery and burns research unit.[24]. Bits of my arms, bits of my legs, part of my face, part of my scalp. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. [14] It took less than four minutes for the entire stand to be engulfed in flames.[11]. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. It remains to be seen whether a new investigation will take place. The book also raises concerns about the speed of the inquiry and the fact that it commenced a few weeks after the fire and lasted for only a few days, whereas other inquiries into similar incidents, pre and post the Bradford fire, have taken years to come to fruition and months to be heard. Police removed the last body from the ground at 4 am yesterday, working under arc lights. Although I was only 12 at the time, 11 May 1985 is a day. The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. [49], Parrs Wood Press published Four Minutes to Hell: The Story of the Bradford City Fire (2005) by author Paul Firth;[50] the title refers to the estimated time it took for the stand to be completely ablaze from the first flames being spotted. The firemen who arrived there were met by a wall of flame and dense black smoke. It was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling,[21] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. [11], The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. Another player went into the office space to ensure there was nobody there. After the fire, Bradford City also announced they would thereafter play with a black trim on their shirt sleeves as a permanent memorial to those who had died. The 4-alarm fire started in a one-story lumber storage building and spread to an adjacent building . The smoke was choking. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. "That was the legacy of the tragedy. The 51 other bodies of children, women and men were so badly burned that identification will take many days. [10] Of those who died, 11 were under-18 and 23 were aged 65 or over,[20] and the oldest victim was the club's former chairman, Sam Firth, aged 86. Since 1903, when the club was formed, Bradford City Association Football Club had played their home games at the ground. 'The smoke was very, very dense. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. "We couldn't run back down the tunnel. [7] As it was the first piece of league silverware that the club had captured since they won the Division Three (North) title 56years earlier, 11,076supporters were in the ground. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. I do not include the people currently running the club, who have always displayed a great, sensitive duty to the memory of those who died. And all you could smell was burning.". [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. Pendleton: "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. Lincoln City chairman Bob Dorrian, centre, is joined by Former Imps Players Association chairman Trevor Swinburne, left, and chairman of the Red Imps. Fletcher has been the only survivor to publicly challenge the inquiry's findings. They were hampered further by the fact that doors at the back of the stand were locked to try to stop people coming in without paying. The blaze is believed to have begun when a dropped cigarette lit rubbish under the wooden seats of the wooden Main Stand at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." It was appalling that public money was given to the club while it was still owned by the same shareholders under whose direction the fire had happened. [15] They included three who tried to escape through the toilets, 27 who were found by exit K and turnstiles 6 to 9 at the rear centre of the stand, and two elderly people who had died in their seats. "I was in the main stand when the fire happened," he says. [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. BBC Sport looks back at the Bradford City fire disaster that claimed the lives of 56 spectators when a stand became engulfed in flames on 11 May 1985. [5] However, he also warned the club of a build-up of litter beneath the stand because of a gap between the seats. There were no fire extinguishers. Website by, Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985, Fundraising for firefighters and their families. Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 21 in a friendly. Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. "The one thing I remember at the time is we were grateful that we got an answer quickly after the inquiry. Bradford city council officials, off-duty policemen and guests from Bradford 's twin town, Munchengladbach, were there to celebrate. The local council was deemed to be one third responsible. "It made me realise life is too short." As we move ahead on the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap, sustainability projects are taking center stage. Samuel Firth, a founder of the supporters' club, was the oldest victim at 86; four 11-year-old boys were the youngest. The fire destroyed the main stand completely and left only burned seats, lamps and metal fences remaining. [17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230mm) below the floor boards. The Bradford City stadium fire occurred during a Football League Third Division match on Saturday, 11 May 1985 at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, killing 56 spectators and injuring at least 265. 1909 - Flores Theater fire, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on February 15, killed 250. Some days I had two operations in a day. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. It was unprecedented.". A call was made on a police radio to the police operations room in Bradford and relayed to the fire brigade at 3.43 pm. His son Christopher normally watches from the stand but on Saturday he joined other fans elsewhere. "Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham had been?" Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. [15] They included three who tried to escape through the toilets, 27 who were found by exit K and turnstiles 6 to 9 at the rear centre of the stand, and two elderly people who had died in their seats. Owing to windy conditions, less than four minutes later the entire wooden stand was engulfed in smoke and fire. Part of the Appeal funds were raised by a recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone"[42] from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Carousel by The Crowd (including Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers, who had recorded the 1963 version that led to Liverpool adopting it as their motto and team song), which reached number one in the UK Singles chart. People were scrambling for their lives to get out, and I know having sat in that stand normally that it is difficult and there is a drop to get to the pitch level," Harrison says. Smoke was seen coming from the third row in the section but people are apparently used to seeing smoke flares on the Bradford ground. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. The Man burns on September 02, 2023. [10] The call was timed at 3:43pm. A giant Christian cross, made up of two large charred wooden members[44] that had once been part of the stand, was constructed in front of the middle of the stand and behind the pitchside speaker's platform. ", IBT UK Morning Brief - Let the best of International News come to you. It was later established that the blaze was caused by a fan who went to put his cigarette out but dropped it between the floorboards onto a pile of rubbish that had been building up below. Pendleton: "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. [47] Scriptwriters of the play spent hours with the survivors and victims families. Fifty-six people died. ', Sports reporters covering the game also spoke of the disaster. "It is the little things that show how much people are still involved the fire still has a big impact on people. "I was supposed to meet my father at my grandfather's house, but I was a bit late so I went straight to the game so I didn't miss the festivities.". 527 votes, 98 comments. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. In the panic that ensued, fleeing crowds escaped on to the pitch but others at the back of the stand tried to break down locked exit doors to escape. Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices Burning timbers and molten materials fell from the roof onto the crowd and seating below, and dense black smoke enveloped a passageway behind the stand, where many spectators were trying to escape. Twenty nine years ago on this date, 56 people tragically died when a fire erupted at Bradford City's Valley Parade ground The day was supposed to be one of celebration for Bradford who had just won the Third Division trophy. [10][16] More than 265 supporters were injured. ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". It detailed the safety work which would be carried out at Valley Parade as a result of the club's promotion, admitting the ground was "inadequate in so many ways for modern requirements". However as the game against Lincoln progressed, a fire began just before half-time in the stand that ran alongside the pitch. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". It was clear from what the Chief Fire Officer for West Yorkshire, Mr Graham Karran, said yesterday that the ground was far from safe. There is no evidence in the book, he is just pointing out there are some coincidences. At 3.40pm, television commentator John Helm remarked upon a small fire in the main stand; in less than four minutes, with the windy conditions, the fire had engulfed the whole stand, trapping some people in their seats. More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. "[27], After controversial comments made by Popplewell about the Hillsborough Disaster, Fletcher raised further concerns about the events following the fire saying that "I have many unanswered questions still about the fire in which four of my family died, as does my mother. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. "The letters that went to the club, the council's failings, the police's failings, even as supporters we allowed a culture where the gates were locked. [32] Speaking at the close of the case, the Judge said "They (the club) were at fault, no one in authority seemed to have appreciated the fire hazard. "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. 56 dead and hundreds more injured. "[37], Fletcher subsequently published a book in 2015, Fifty-Six: The Story of the Bradford Fire which revealed a history of fires at businesses owned by the Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham. After 40 minutes of the first half, fans had begun to complain about the drab match and the 0-0 score. Eighty names were unaccounted for and there were no positive indications about the cause of the fire. The horrific scenes of people burning alive seemed to live on in an eerie silence as daylight broke over the remains of Bradford City Football Club's ground yesterday. "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". Stories From 11 May. The match was recorded by Yorkshire Television for their regional edition of the ITV Sunday afternoon football show The Big Match. The Bradford City disaster took place on Saturday May 11, 1985 when a flash fire occurred at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England. At Valley Parade there are now two memorials. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. Those who escaped walked to a nearby pub to use the phone to ring home, while others arrived in a daze outside the police headquarters to try and trace relatives. At the final home match against Barnsley at the end of April, Bradford City fans collected more than 8,000 in a bucket collection. The Bradford City stadium fire occurred during a Football League Third Division match on Saturday, 11 May 1985 at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, killing 56 spectators and injuring at least 265. "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. The heat inside the stand literally ignited people where they stood. More than 250 others were injured in one of the biggest disasters at a British football ground. [57] Following the 30th anniversary of the fire, a number of news organisations named this man as Eric Bennett who was visiting his nephew in Bradford from Australia and attended the game on the day. Fire on Upper Castle Street, Bradford Yorkshire Evening Post On This Day 1985: The Bradford City Fire 0:15 Bradford Mill fire 24:43 The Bradford Fire 0:26 Large fire in Bradford Yorkshire Evening Post Bradford Mill fire 0:34 Bradford Great Horton Mill fire 0:10 Fire at Bradford school (video: Glynn Beck) 4:05 bradford city fc fire 1985 We didn't know how serious it was.". It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out. [8][10] Three men smashed down one door and at least one exit was opened by people outside, which again helped prevent further deaths. The match, Bradford against Lincoln, was to have been a joyous climax to the club winning the Third Division championship and being promoted to the Second Division. Bradford fan Matthew Wildman, who was aged 17 and using crutches because of rheumatoid arthritis: "When I got to one of the final walls, there was an eight-foot drop at the other side, concrete at the bottom. The fire brigade arrived at the ground four minutes after they were initially alerted. The game was goalless after 40 minutes when play was stopped. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. England won the re-match 64. "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. He is quoted as saying: "I don't believe the statement of retired Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer at all. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. A Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund raised 3.5m for the victims and their families. I saw one man lying on the ground, burning from head to foot. It wasn't just something that happened in the past.". "I was in the stand opposite when the fire broke out. I don't see that. Bradford City had just won the Third Division Championship and a record number of spectators over 11,000 had turned out to see the club presented with its first piece of league silverware in 56 years. The blame was through neglect, they didn't have the money to maintain the stand. It was to be our day,' he said. 1908 - Collinwood school fire, in Collinwood, Ohio (soon absorbed by Cleveland ), on March 4, killed 175. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. Bradford City initially prospered in the Second Division only missing out on promotion to the First Division in 1988 after failing to beat Ipswich Town at home on the final day of their first full season back at Valley Parade. He agreed that the inquiry into Bradford, led by the judge Oliver Popplewell, was inadequate and that there are many unanswered questions. Some repair work was carried out, but in July 1984 the club was warned again, this time by a county council engineer, because of the club's plans to claim for ground improvements from the Football Trust. He started to walk home, unsure of what had happened to his father. Bradford fan David Pendleton, then aged 21 and stood in the main stand: "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. One letter from the council said the problems "should be rectified as soon as possible"; a second said: "A carelessly discarded cigarette could give rise to a fire risk." [26], In July 1985, an inquest was held into the deaths; at the hearings the coroner James Turnbull recommended a death by misadventure outcome, with which the jury agreed.