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. [34], During the case, Sir Joseph Cantley stated that: "It is only right that I should say that I think it would be unfair to conclude that Heginbotham, Tordoff, the Board of Directors, or any of them, were intentionally and callously indifferent to the safety of spectators using the stand. The Great Fire of London, 1212 | Sky HISTORY TV Channel "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". He later died in hospital. At Valley Parade there are now two memorials. Brooklyn fire: Lumber storage warehouse in Williamsburg goes up in The blaze quickly engulfed the stand as Bradford played Lincoln City and claimed the lives of 59 people on May 11, 1985. "The one thing I remember at the time is we were grateful that we got an answer quickly after the inquiry. Bradford City stadium fire: BBC documentary says Aussie man to blame People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. Pendleton: "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. [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. 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. The courts held the club to be two thirds responsible, finding that it gave "no or very little thought to fire precautions" despite repeated warnings. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. Saturday began for the fans in a carnival atmosphere at Bradford 's Valley Parade ground a short walk from the city centre. We, and the world, need Burning Man and Black Rock City more than ever. [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. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. 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. Pendleton: "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. "I got pushed down to the front and I remember looking around and suddenly this smouldering, small fire had taken over virtually half a block and was starting to hit the roof. 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 . But I've never spoken to anyone who thought the fire wasn't anything other than a tragic accident. All Rights Reserved. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. ", "If the inquiry is opened again, we will await to see what evidence there is to prove is wasn't an accident," he says. It remains to be seen whether a new investigation will take place. "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. Tarpaulin fell on them and stuck to their clothes and then ignited. An inquiry launched in the aftermath of the disaster led to legislation to improve safety at football grounds. The speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. We didn't know how serious it was.". The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". 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 game was goalless after 40 minutes when play was stopped. 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. 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. Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.[10]. You could hardly breathe. He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. "I saw people die in the stand - but it was only until then that I realised the scale of it.". 24 Bradford City A.F.C. Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. The Most Tragic Nightclub Fires In History - Grunge.com Last updated on 10 May 201510 May 2015.From the section Football, "People didn't die because of fires at football grounds. 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? The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. 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. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. 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. [36], In 2010, Susan Fletcher's son and survivor of the Bradford City fire (and witness to the Hillsborough disaster), Martin Fletcher, openly criticised the club's hierarchy at the time of the fire and the subsequent investigation. 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. 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. The Bradford City Stadium Fire 1985 - The Football Inferno 56 dead and hundreds more injured. Bradford City Stadium Fire - Saturday 11th May 1985 'The fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. 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The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. Burning Man NYC 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". Eighty names were unaccounted for and there were no positive indications about the cause of the fire. The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. "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. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. Burning Man Countdown | Burning Man [22], Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. At the time, however, Harrison says, Bradford just wanted to move on. Grenfell among the UK's worst fire and tower tragedies "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.". Today, locals continue to raise money for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit in memory of the victims of the fire. Others ran forward to try to clamber over a fence and a small wall on to the pitch. Bradford City were supposed to be celebrating on 11 May 1985. Bradford fire 11.5.1985.mpg - video Dailymotion The Bradford City stadium fire was the worst fire disaster in the history of football.. Mr Delahunte was screaming into his microphone describing the scene until it became impossible to continue broadcasting. [38], The tragedy received immense media attention and drew support from around the world, with those offering their sympathy including Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. One elderly man started to walk across the pitch with his clothes and face ablaze. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. The wooden roof that burned was scheduled to be replaced by a steel roof later that same . People had walked through turnstiles and along a wooden corridor before descending the steps into their seats. "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 match was recorded by Yorkshire Television for their regional edition of the ITV Sunday afternoon football show The Big Match. Interviews conducted by BBC Radio Leeds' Tim Daley. Watch Missed Warnings on BBC One in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 22:45 BST on Tuesday, 12 May. BBC News - Bradford fire 'will live with me forever' [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. Bradford City stadium fire disaster remembered - BBC Sport A minute later he saw a small plume of smoke so he poured his coffee on it and so did his son. 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. 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. 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. The stories of escapes are legion. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". 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. 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. Bradford council introduced its emergency plans procedure yesterday to give aid to many families affected by the disaster. 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. [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. [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. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Yet many of those with terrible memories of the tragedy also take heart in the compassion born out of the devastation. Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. Stories From 11 May. 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. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. 199 Bradford City Stadium Fire Photos and Premium High Res Pictures The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. "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. About 3,000 people were in Valley Parade's main stand, escaping by climbing over walls on to the pitch or through the usual exit gates. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. 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. She was hysterical and trying to find her three children. 1985 disaster in Valley Parade Stadium, Bradford, England. Other parents whose children had not arrived home on Saturday called at the police station or sat in cars outside, waiting for news. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". "I want the truth to be out, the myths to be broken, so that I can get on with my life rather than knowing this information and having to live with this information. [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. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. The 4-alarm fire started in a one-story lumber storage building and spread to an adjacent building . His father Tony went back the following day and said: "I wondered how anybody had got out alive, but I also began to feel guilty that I had got out when so many hadn't." 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. "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. People were arriving in a daze outside Bradford police headquarters on Saturday evening and early yesterday. [31] In 1988, the first compensation payments were made to survivors of the fire, with over 40 people receiving up to 40,000 each. 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]. We sat in the main stand the week before, but we had decided to move on that day," he says. Supporters either ran upwards to the back of the stand or downwards to the pitch to escape. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out. 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. ', Sports reporters covering the game also spoke of the disaster. [12] The work was expected to cost 400,000 (1.3million today). 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. 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. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. He later said: "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. [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. "We wouldn't normally have covered that game - no question about it. 05/12/15 AT 9:58 AM BST Crowds on the pitch at the Valley Parade stadium after a stand caught fire Getty Images Police have revealed the identity of the man who they believe was responsible. "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. [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. 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". "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.". The game was irrelevant.". We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. "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. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. 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.. [17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230mm) below the floor boards. Copyright 2023 IBTimes UK. It was unprecedented.". 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.
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