'They did not have a chance. 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 51 other bodies of children, women and men were so badly burned that identification will take many days. 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. 'The fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. 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. Fletcher has taken facts and presented them in such a way that it should make it moralistically impossible for this incident not to be looked at again. 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. Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. Police worked until 4am the next morning, under lighting, to remove all the bodies. ", "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. The game was irrelevant.". Those with longer memories will also think of the Ibrox disaster of . Fire disaster at football match (Bradford City stadium fire) - YouTube Sign in to confirm your age 0:00 / 5:23 Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users.. 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. Many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. The Bradford Burns Unit was set up by Professor David Sharpe after he received many of the victims following the fire. In those days there was a lot of hooliganism and violence, so my initial thought was: 'I hope it has not kicked off - that's the last thing we need'. Loading. The fire at a Brooklyn lumber storage building sent plumes of smoke over Williamsburg on Tuesday. [10][16] Geoffrey Mitchell said: "There was panic as fans stampeded to an exit which was padlocked. [39], The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. However, the turnstiles were locked and none of the stadium staff were present to unlock them, leaving no escape through the normal entrances and exits. 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. "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". "How quickly the fire spread is difficult to convey to people.". "It wasn't covering anything up, it wasn't avoiding the truth of what happened, everyone knows what happened, everyone knows it shouldn't have happened. Guided by the values expressed by the 10 Principles, Burning Man is a global ecosystem of artists, makers, and community organizers who co-create art, events, and local initiatives around the world. "If we were fed a lie about it being an accident, then we will be educated. 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'. Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. 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. 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. Cigarette smoking was also banned at all grounds with wooden stands. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. BurningMan.NYC will announce the dates and process for the 2023 grant cycle on this site & all BurningMan.NYC social channels in early Spring. Eighty names were unaccounted for and there were no positive indications about the cause of the fire. The smoke was choking. 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. 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. "Then we ran out in our tracksuits each holding a massive card with a letter. [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. "The one thing I remember at the time is we were grateful that we got an answer quickly after the inquiry. The club's success had swollen the crowd to 10,000 and arguments will rage about fire precautions at the ground. Recommended The untold stories of the 1985 fire It seemed to put it out. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. 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. Bradford City stadium fire: The untold stories of the 1985 fire that devastated Valley Parade Thirty years after football's 'forgotten tragedy', the truth of what exactly happened when 56. "We couldn't run back down the tunnel. Superintendent Barry Osborne, divisional commander for the football club area, who was injured in the fire said that many policemen cried when they saw how badly people had been burned. Hendrie: "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. "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. The Documentary highlighted the 'poison pen letters' and graffiti targeted at the then club chairman Stafford Heginbotham over accusations that he was in some way personally responsible for the deaths of the 56 people who died at the fire.[54]. Burning Man.NYC. 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. The game was irrelevant. [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. [16] Messages of condolence were also received from Helmut Kohl, Chedli Klibi and Felipe Gonzlez. "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. 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. It transpired that the wooden stand had already been condemned and was set to be demolished just two days after the tragedy. "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48hours of the disaster, eventually raised over 3.5million (11.3million today). [4], Although there had been some changes to other parts of the ground, the main stand remained unaltered by 1985. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". It was clear from what the Chief Fire Officer for West Yorkshire, Mr Graham Karran, said yesterday that the ground was far from safe. 05/10/15 AT 12:00 PM BST Crowds on the pitch at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium after the stand caught fire Getty Images Fifty-six people were killed, 265 were injured and thousands. He lit a cigarette and when it was coming to an end he put it down on to the floorboard and tried to put his foot on it to put it out. I had no idea. The timber construction of St. Andrew's Stand, Main Stand and the roof of its popular Railway End terrace were immediately condemned as fire hazards, which saw seating capacity briefly cut to nil. We couldn't breathe. "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. 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. Treatment of casualties and Burns Research Unit, Dramatisations, documentaries and published works, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of accidents and disasters by death toll, List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll, "Hideous images linger after carnage of 'celebration' day", "Caught in Time: Bradford City win the Third Division, 1985", "EXCLUSIVE: Bradford's Valley Parade fire must be remembered like Hillsborough", "History of The Bradford Sling The Bradford Sling", "Bradford City football stadium blaze surgeon honoured", "Research centre to be living memorial to Bradford City FC fire disaster", "The Papers of the Popplewell Inquiry into Crowd Safety at Sports Grounds", "Popplewell Inquiry Bradford City Fire", "Bradford remembered: The unheeded warnings that led to tragedy", Joseph Canley summing up statement from test case court transcripts, Newspaper report from Sport and the Law April 21st 1989, "The Glasgow Herald Google News Archive Search", Los Angeles Times report on Bradford City test case findings, Court transcript from the test case brought by Susan Fletcher and Others against Bradford City and Others, "Bradford fire survivor attacks judge over Hillsborough comments", "The Story of the Bradford Fire: 'could any man really be as unlucky as Stafford Heginbotham? People had walked through turnstiles and along a wooden corridor before descending the steps into their seats. People were clambering over the wall on to the ground with their clothes and hair on fire. One man clambered over burning seats to help a fan,[18] as did player John Hawley,[15] and one officer led fans to an exit, only to find it shut and had to turn around. But many, including Harrison, believe it could unnecessarily reopen wounds if it does happen. Watch Missed Warnings on BBC One in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 22:45 BST on Tuesday, 12 May. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. The heat inside the stand literally ignited people where they stood. 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. 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 They stood outside the headquarters, staring at nothing in particular. 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. However, there is a lot in this book that troubles me about the science, or lack of it, used in the testing of the investigators' hypothesis as to the source of the ignition. [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. 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. It was an awful thing to watch.". "That's when I thought 'this is time to get out of here'. 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. Another player went into the office space to ensure there was nobody there. However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. 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. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. 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. By the time the fire brigade arrived they were faced with huge flames and dense smoke. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard. Uncensored coverage of the fire was transmitted minutes after the event on World of Sport and the BBC's Grandstand after the video cassette was physically driven to Yorkshire Television. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. The fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. Fifty-six people died. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. 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.
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