"It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." [6] 1908 - Parker Building, New York City, January 10. All Rights Reserved. When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". They were donated by Bradford's twin city of Hamm, Germany, and are situated in front of Bradford City Hall in both locations. "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off. It spelt out 'thank you fans'. We sat in the main stand the week before, but we had decided to move on that day," he says. [14] It took less than four minutes for the entire stand to be engulfed in flames.[11]. It is not thought that there was any crowd trouble in this section but one theory the police are investigating is that a flare or smoke-bomb was thrown or was accidentally dropped. [8], The Bradford City matchday squad of players and staff consisted of Terry Yorath, Trevor Cherry, Chris Withe, Don Goodman, Eric McManus, Tony Clegg, John Hawley, Dave Evans, Bryan Edwards, John Hendrie, Mark Ellis, Stuart McCall, Peter Jackson, Bobby Campbell, Martin Singleton and Greg Abbott. The money raised from this record was contributed to fund the internationally renowned burns unit that was established in partnership between the University of Bradford and Bradford Royal Infirmary, immediately after the fire, which has also been Bradford City's official charity for well over a decade. All you could hear was sirens and screams. [4] Football ground writer Simon Inglis had described the view from the stand as "like watching football from the cockpit of a Sopwith Camel" because of its antiquated supports and struts. "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. Bradford City Stadium Fire 56 Dead & 100's Injured The Bradford City stadium fire was a stadium disaster that occurred during an English League Third Division fixture between Bradford City and Lincoln City on Saturday, 11 May 1985, killing 56 and injuring at least 265. 'I have to tell you that the fire was so intense that identifying people is going to be the great problem we have to face.'. [10] The call was timed at 3:43pm. The fire was described as the worst fire disaster in the history of British football, and the worst football related disaster since 66spectators died at Ibrox in 1971. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. "[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. "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. Eighty names were unaccounted for and there were no positive indications about the cause of the fire. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. 2022 DECOMPRESSION WAS DREAMY . "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. Forty-two minutes into the first half of the game, he looked to his left to see smoke and flames rising from the old wooden seats. Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. "As a 15-year-old, you don't really know how much of an impact an event like that will have on your life," Town says. 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". [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. Christopher Hammond, who was 12 on the day, said on the 20th anniversary of the fire: "As a 12-year-old, it was easy to move on I didn't realise how serious it was until I looked at the press coverage over the next few days. Those with longer memories will also think of the Ibrox disaster of . "It made me realise life is too short." Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. Listen to Valley Parade: Bradford City Fire Remembered on BBC Radio Leeds (18:00 BST) and BBC Radio 5 live (21:00 BST). "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. 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. ", "If the inquiry is opened again, we will await to see what evidence there is to prove is wasn't an accident," he says. Hillsborough looms the largest in our collective consciousness, but there were also the many deaths that occurred at Heysel Stadium in 1985, as well as the Bradford City stadium fire that same year. There is a twin memorial sculpture, unveiled on 11 May 1986, which has the names of the dead inscribed on it. "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. A fire at a third division match between Bradford City and Lincoln City killed 56, including 11 children, and injured hundreds more. 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. The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. 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. However, the responsibility of the Club is, in my view, very much the greater and I apportion responsibility between the two defendants as to two-thirds on the first defendant and one-third on the third (sic) defendant. On the recording are Dene Michael (Black Lace), The Chuckle Brothers, Clive Jackson of Dr & The Medics, Owen Paul, Billy Pearce, Billy Shears, Flint Bedrock, Danny Tetley and Rick Wild of The Overlanders. One woman was seen running around the ground with no skin on her arms and face. It was clear from what the Chief Fire Officer for West Yorkshire, Mr Graham Karran, said yesterday that the ground was far from safe. 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. Hendrie: "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. [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. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". "I was in the main stand when the fire happened," he says. There were queues of people outside houses, which obviously wouldn't happen nowadays. Last updated on 10 May 201510 May 2015.From the section Football, "People didn't die because of fires at football grounds. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. 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. The 51 other bodies of children, women and men were so badly burned that identification will take many days. Then the flames and smoke were all over the place.'. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. [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. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. Edited by BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko. 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. As many supporters still required rescue from the stand, they were unable to immediately start fighting the source of the fire. One family was in tears, the mother shaking. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. There was hardly anything left of him.'. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. On 23 February 1987, Sir Joseph Cantley found the club two thirds responsible and the county council (which by this time had been abolished) one third responsible. It is impossible so far to be accurate about the precise cause of the fire, with grossly conflicting reports from witnesses. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. [3] It included a main stand which seated 5,300fans, and had room for a further 7,000 standing spectators in the paddock in front. Thirty years on, the majority of survivors still find it too difficult to talk about what happened at the Valley Parade on 11 May 1985. Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. One man clambered over burning seats to help a fan, as did player John Hawley, and one officer led fans to an exit, only to find it shut and turn around.Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand, ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. He was actually one of the detectives involved in one of the gravest miscarriages of justices in the country, the murder of Carol Wilkinson in Bradford, where someone was locked up for 20 years for a murder he didn't commit."[60]. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. ", Hendrie: "We stayed in the pub for hours. "[28], West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. Now they will begin another inquiry, into the cause of the Bradford fire. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. Stadium disasters have blighted the world of sport throughout modern history. It seemed to put it out. Some had been crushed as they tried to crawl under turnstiles to escape. On 11 May 1985 a fire erupted in the midst of a third-division tie between Bradford City and Lincoln City at Valley Parade, killing 54 home supporters and two Lincoln fans. The speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. The fire claimed young and old alike, with most fatalities occurring at the rear of the stand where people sought escape only to find turnstiles locked. The inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Sir Oliver Popplewell and known as the Popplewell Inquiry,[25] led to the introduction of new legislation to improve safety at the UK's football grounds. "[33], Central to the test case were two letters sent to Bradford City's Club Secretary by the West Yorkshire Fire Brigade; the second letter dated 18 July 1984 specifically highlighted in full the improvements needed to be actioned at the ground as well as the fire risk at the main stand. "I got stuck against the wall with the weight of people behind me trying to get over. People ran onto the pitch with their clothes on fire while others were trapped at the back of the stand where they had gone to try to escape through the turnstiles. The flames suddenly appeared and the whole roof took alight,' he said. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. Town began to paint two years ago, first of the old Bradford Park Avenue ground, before moving onto other stadiums. But the sheer density of numbers coupled with the thick, choking smoke made people collapse. 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. Following his own 15 year investigation Into the fire, which killed four of his family members while he escaped, former tax accountant Martin Fletcher released 56: The Story of the Bradford Fire (2015). 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. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. It took the firemen four minutes to arrive at the ground but the speed of the fire was such that the blaze also took only four minutes to grip the entire stand. Bradford city council officials, off-duty policemen and guests from Bradford 's twin town, Munchengladbach, were there to celebrate. I've never seen anything like it. Pendleton: "As I ran away I remember turning around and looking and just seeing this wall of grey smoke pouring out and pushing thousands of people in front of it. The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. Bradford fire: the horrors and the silence that had to be broken Daniel Taylor The policewoman assigned to the grieving Fletchers gets goosebumps when she looks back to 30 years ago. After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. I don't see that. Bradford City continues to support the burns unit at the University of Bradford as its official charity. Mike Harrison, the editor of the Bradford City Football Club fanzine The City Gent, was there on the day. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. The chairman of the football club, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, was near to tears as he explained what had happened. The fire brigade arrived at the ground four minutes after they were initially alerted. [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. "Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham had been?" 56 people dead. Warnings had been issued over the ground's antiquated wooden structure, which had been condemned and was due to be pulled down and replaced with steel and concrete. Hendrie: "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. [39], The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". "I'm taking the opportunity to lay out the facts that were not laid out in 1985 at the time of the inquiry or the inquests. They were not able to use water on the stand immediately because this would have hampered attempts to rescue people being dragged by the police and friends from the stand. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. "We went out on to the pitch and I could see so many happy faces. As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. [30], The outcome of the test case resulted in over 154 claims being addressed (110 civilians and 44 police officers)[31] by the injured or bereaved. ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". [31] In 1988, the first compensation payments were made to survivors of the fire, with over 40 people receiving up to 40,000 each. The two sides met for the first time after the fire in April 1989, when they arranged a benefit match in aid of the Hillsborough disaster, at Valley Parade. [15], At 3:44pm, five minutes before half-time, the first sign of a firea glowing lightwas noticed three rows from the back of block G,[10][16] as reported by television commentator John Helm. [47] Scriptwriters of the play spent hours with the survivors and victims families. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. "All you could see was black cloud. Popplewell's report was nowhere close to the quality of Lord Justice Taylor's report after Hillsborough, and since reading it as an adult I have always been very disappointed in it and considered it a poor piece of work. 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. [45] In total, 28 police officers and 22 supporters, who were publicly documented as having saved at least one life, later received police commendations or bravery awards. The main stand at Valley Parade burned down after what was thought to be a dropped cigarette led to flames which engulfed the entire wooden structure. An inquiry launched in the aftermath of the disaster led to legislation to improve safety at football grounds. 'This was a dreadful afternoon. Wealso use analytics cookies that don't track usersto help us improve it. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. [46], In 2014, the theatre company Funny You Should Ask (FYSA) premiered their heartfelt tribute to the 56 people who died at the fire. Within five minutes the whole stand was engulfed in flames. The Man burns on September 02, 2023. The intensity of the blaze which spread 'quicker than people could walk' destroyed the main stand area, leaving a skeleton of burned seats, lamps and fences. Fifty-six people died. 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'. "We couldn't help because there were so many people streaming towards us, to our side of the pitch, to get away from the heat. "[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. You could hardly breathe. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He later died in hospital. [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. 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. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. " Burning Man," " Burning Man Project," " Black Rock City ", and . Club coach Terry Yorath incurred minor injuries while taking part in the rescue. So I decided to give it that next push. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. The game was goalless after 40 minutes when play was stopped. The government inquiry into the disaster concluded the fire spread "faster than a man could run".
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