It was to be our day,' he said. [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. "[16] As spectators began to cascade over the wall separating the stand from the pitch, the linesman on that side of the pitch informed referee Norman Glover, who stopped the game with three minutes remaining before half-time. "We couldn't run back down the tunnel. Hendrie: "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. [11], The disaster also had a long-lasting effect on the fans. A capacity 6,000 crowd attended a multi-denominational memorial service, held on the pitch in the sunny shadow of the burnt out stand at Valley Parade in July 1985. Most of the exits at the back were locked or shut and there were no stewards present to open them, but seven were forced open or found open. All that was left of the main stand were rows of bare steel and stone, with blackened timbers hanging from the few remaining roof supports. Bradford City stadium fire: Police identify man who 'dropped the Burning Man Countdown | Burning Man Only then do you realise the huge network of people the fire involved. Police worked until 4am the next morning, under lighting, to remove all the bodies. Together, flanked by undocumented supporters, they managed to clear all but one person who made it to the front of the stand. The fire happened during a football match. Cigarette smoking was also banned at all grounds with wooden stands. The main stand at Bradford was not surrounded by fencing, and therefore most of the spectators in it could escape onto the pitch if they had been penned in then the death toll would inevitably have been in the hundreds if not the thousands. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. I saw one man lying on the ground, burning from head to foot. " Burning Man," " Burning Man Project," " Black Rock City ", and . It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. Bradford, playing into a strong wind, were struggling to break down a Lincoln side already safe from relegation. [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. The stand had been officially condemned and was due to be replaced with a steel structure after the season ended. [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. "Me and my dad eventually got out safely but it was a bit of a struggle at one point because the walls getting down to the pitch level were quite high I didn't get a growth spurt until I was 16 or 17.". His son Christopher normally watches from the stand but on Saturday he joined other fans elsewhere. 1908 - Rhoads Opera House fire, Boyertown, Pennsylvania, killed 170. Eight fires in the 18 years before the Bradford City fire were identified, many catastrophic and leading to large insurance payouts. All Rights Reserved. "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. 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. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48hours of the disaster, eventually raised over 3.5million (11.3million today). The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. Bradford City stadium fire disaster remembered - BBC Sport The Most Tragic Nightclub Fires In History - Grunge.com Fire kills 50 at soccer stadium - HISTORY 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. I hope you enjoy some of the fascinating stories we have here.#History #Disasters Brooklyn fire: Lumber storage warehouse in Williamsburg goes up in There is no evidence in the book, he is just pointing out there are some coincidences. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. 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. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). [46], In 2014, the theatre company Funny You Should Ask (FYSA) premiered their heartfelt tribute to the 56 people who died at the fire. The government inquiry into the disaster concluded the fire spread "faster than a man could run". Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. 'This was a dreadful afternoon. They wouldn't let us because then people would get in the way of fire engines, ambulances and police trying to get in. Now they will begin another inquiry, into the cause of the Bradford fire. 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. The flames suddenly appeared and the whole roof took alight,' he said. Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out. The 1984-85 season had been one of the most successful in Bradford City's 82-year history. The man we see at 7:50 walking out onto the pitch on fire was a retired mill worker. 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. (2015), 2003 Football League Third Division play-off final, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradford_City_stadium_fire&oldid=1141323458, Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2021, Articles needing additional references from May 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from December 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Fan attempted to extinguish a lit cigarette, it slipped through floorboards and fell on rubbish, igniting it. The scene in there was one of silence and shock. 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. They stood outside the headquarters, staring at nothing in particular. More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. The stories of escapes are legion. Recommended The untold stories of the 1985 fire [22], Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. Within a few hours of the blaze starting, it was established that 56 people had been killed, many as a result of smoke inhalation, although some of them had survived until reaching hospital.[11]. 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]. Police had an official photographer at the game, watching for crowd disturbance. Television cameras spotted the outbreak of fire in Valley Parade's main stand at 15:40 BST. Wildman: "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. [6], The 198485 season had been one of Bradford City's most successful seasons, ending with City clinching the championship title courtesy of a 20 victory against Bolton Wanderers in the penultimate game of the season. I dread to imagine how many more could have died if the wind had been blowing in the direction of the pitch, instead of away from it. It's a nice little business and it's something positive that came out of a tragedy. Mr Delahunte was screaming into his microphone describing the scene until it became impossible to continue broadcasting. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off. Today marks the 35th anniversary of one of the worst disasters in the history of British football. He went on to state: "In 1985 fire investigation in Britain was in its infancy and some would say at that time most fire investigators were not much more than dust-kickers. Led by former England international Trevor Cherry, the Bantams won only their third divisional title and earned a return to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1937. The game was goalless after 40 minutes when play was stopped. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. "It is hard to imagine how Martin and his mother have managed to cope over the last 30 years and we have always respected him," Harrison says. Loading. People were clambering over the wall on to the ground with their clothes and hair on fire. When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. "We stayed in the pub for hours. "Then we ran out in our tracksuits each holding a massive card with a letter. One elderly man started to walk across the pitch with his clothes and face ablaze. After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. 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. [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. The plastic surgeon who treated the injuries of over 200, Professor David Sharpe, went on to set up a world-renowned burns research facility at the University of Bradford. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. What Is Burning Man? | Burning Man "I looked up and saw the flames. Pendleton: "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. Mr Stefan Krolak, a survivor from Bradford , said he saw the smoke start a few seats away from him 'The smoke seemed suddenly to set on fire. [58] Following this report, Leslie Brownlie, who was the nephew in question, is reported to have said that his uncle never made such an admission of starting the fire. Helm: "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". Radiated heat from the burning roof of the stand set fire to the clothing of fans trapped underneath. It's terrifying how quickly fire spreads in the wrong circumstances. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. [40] Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and needed crutches to walk because of rheumatoid arthritis. The match was recorded by Yorkshire Television for their regional edition of the ITV Sunday afternoon football show The Big Match. "Since then I have thought of everything we could have done, but we didn't have the presence of mind to run across the pitch and tell people to get out. Fifty-six people died. [53], In 1986, a year after the disaster, Yorkshire Television aired a documentary presented by John Helm entitled Bradford City A Year of Healing. She was an. As he scaled the brick perimeter wall at the front, his father stayed behind to help others escape. "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. "When I got to one of the final walls, there was an eight-foot drop at the other side, concrete at the bottom. 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. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. [56], On 17 April 2015, retired Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer, in a report by the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, said the police were aware of an Australian man who admitted to starting the fire. "I got stuck against the wall with the weight of people behind me trying to get over. But I've never spoken to anyone who thought the fire wasn't anything other than a tragic accident. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. The stand had no perimeter fencing to keep fans from accessing the pitch, thus averting an instance of crush asphyxia as in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Saturday began for the fans in a carnival atmosphere at Bradford 's Valley Parade ground a short walk from the city centre. [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. [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. This day was for them. The Bradford city stadium fire. 56 people died when a - reddit 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. I looked down and I saw my hands melting. I saw a group of people around the smoke laughing. Warning: Some readers may find parts of this content distressing. Nigel Adams who worked for 12 years as a fire investigator with a British fire service was spurred on by the book to join the call for a fresh inquiry, stating that Fletcher's book was "one of the best accounts of a fire, as seen from a victim's point of view, and as a piece of investigative writing, I have ever read". 199 Bradford City Stadium Fire Photos and Premium High Res Pictures All you could hear was sirens and screams. [10] The stand seats did not have risers; this had allowed a large accumulation of rubbish and paper waste in the cavity space under the stand, which had not been cleared for many months. [6] 1908 - Parker Building, New York City, January 10. [31] In 1988, the first compensation payments were made to survivors of the fire, with over 40 people receiving up to 40,000 each. And all you could smell was burning.". The 1985 Bradford City Football Stadium Fire What Happened and Why "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. By the time the fire brigade arrived they were faced with huge flames and dense smoke. 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. Burning Man - Wikipedia It has a black marble fascia on which the names and ages of those that died are inscribed in gold, and a black marble platform on which people can leave flowers and mementos. "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. Hundreds more telephoned the police to try to trace relatives. [27], Explaining his decision, Sir Joseph Cantley stated: "As I have already stated, the primary duty was on the Club and the functions of the County Council were supervisory and its liability is for negligent breach of a common law duty arising out of the way in which they dealt with or ignored their statutory powers. 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. It was fairly clear that somebody had dropped a lighted match or cigarette between the floorboards.". Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. But all the people being treated, we formed a family, a bond.". 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. 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. As we move ahead on the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap, sustainability projects are taking center stage. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. 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. People were falling on to each other and screaming. Wealso use analytics cookies that don't track usersto help us improve it. He asks the reader to make their mind up about whether these fires were a coincidence or not.". There was hardly anything left of him.'. "Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham had been?" Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. Edited by BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko. [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. As many supporters still required rescue from the stand, they were unable to immediately start fighting the source of the fire. The match between Bradford City and Lincoln City, the final game of that season, had started in a celebratory atmosphere with the home team receiving the Third Division championship trophy. "It made me realise life is too short." Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . Bradford fire: the horrors and the silence that had to be broken It wasn't just something that happened in the past.". "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. It spelt out 'thank you fans'. The 1985 Bradford City Stadium fire remembered - IFSEC Global 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. 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. ", Hendrie: "The players were told to go to the pub at the top of the road, we didn't know at this point if anyone had been killed. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. At 3.40pm, five minutes before half-time, a glowing light was spotted three rows from the back of block G. "We were stood in line with the 18-yard, the penalty area, when we saw some smoke and a bit of fire diagonally from where we were. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. He was completely on fire and it looked as though he simply did not know what had happened to him.'. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. "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. 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. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. At the time, however, Harrison says, Bradford just wanted to move on. One woman was seen running around the ground with no skin on her arms and face. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. 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. "I was in the stand opposite when the fire broke out. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. As a result, Bradford-born captain Peter Jackson was presented with the league trophy before the final game of the season with mid-table Lincoln City at Valley Parade on 11 May 1985. [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. [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. Grenfell among the UK's worst fire and tower tragedies I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night of Burning Man, which is the Saturday evening before Labor Day. The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx, killed 87 people, the . "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". For the 30th anniversary of the fire a new version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded at Voltage Studios in Bradford. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. The other, situated by the main entrance, was donated by the club after its 7.5million (13million today) rebuilding of the original main stand in 2002. It remains to be seen whether a new investigation will take place. Listen to Valley Parade: Bradford City Fire Remembered on BBC Radio Leeds (18:00 BST) and BBC Radio 5 live (21:00 BST). "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. There were queues of people outside houses, which obviously wouldn't happen nowadays. Bradford City Stadium Fire: The Forgotten Fire Tragedy of 1985 that I've never seen anything like it. 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." Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. Lincoln City's board responded by committing 1.1million (3.5million today) to their ground's renovation in the year that immediately followed the fire at Valley Parade, and over the following decade made improvements that eventually totalled 3million. "[28], West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. Fire disaster at football match (Bradford City stadium fire) Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. 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. 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. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. BBC News - Bradford fire 'will live with me forever' Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - HISTORY "[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. 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. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. 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. [13], The match kicked off at 3:04pm and after forty minutes of the first half, the score remained 00,[14] in what was described as a drab affair with neither team threatening to score. Bradford City players line up to observe a minutes silence for the 25th anniversary of the 1985 Bradford stadium fire prior to the Coca Cola League. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. Somebody looked round and grabbed me by the hood of my coat to pull me over. Christmas Day is supposed to be happy and pleasant, a time to gather with loved ones for a chill and relaxing celebration. Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. 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". It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years. Within five minutes the whole stand was engulfed in flames. "I've always loved art but I owned businesses in construction so I've never had the time or a chance to follow it up," he says. "[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. "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade.
