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. He saw smoke coming from a small area of the stand and thought that someone had let off a flare. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. Owing to windy conditions, less than four minutes later the entire wooden stand was engulfed in smoke and fire. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. [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. Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.[10]. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. Those who rescued people were themselves burned in the process. "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". The firemen who arrived there were met by a wall of flame and dense black smoke. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. 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. Smoke was seen coming from the third row in the section but people are apparently used to seeing smoke flares on the Bradford ground. It was to be our day,' he said. You may notice some big changes in Black Rock City this year. But all the people being treated, we formed a family, a bond.". After its renovation in 1990 they named the home end of their ground the 'Stacey-West Stand', in honour of Bill Stacey and Jim West, the two Lincoln City supporters who were amongst the 56 to die at Bradford. 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. [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. [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. 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. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. 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. "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". "[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. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. [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. But many, including Harrison, believe it could unnecessarily reopen wounds if it does happen. [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. Called 'The 56' the play dramatises actual accounts of the Bradford City Fire with the purpose of the play showing how in times of adversity, the Football Club and the local community came together. "[35], The total amount of compensation to the 154 claimants was reported to be as high as 20million, with the payouts covered by insurance taken out by the club. "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. "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. Crowds on the pitch at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium after the stand caught fire, Bradford City fans pay tribute to the 56 fans who died the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985, The blaze causing the deaths of 56 supporters in one of the worst incidents in British football, Bradford artist Paul Town was inspired to paint after surviving the Valley Parade fire, Stay up to date with our daily newsletter, New book claims fatal 1985 Bradford City Valley Parade fire might have been started deliberately, Bradford City chairman 'linked to eight fires' before Valley Parade stadium disaster, Bradford City 0-0 Reading: Bantams hold Royals in quarter-final stalemate, David Alaba receives massive abuse for voting for Lionel Messi in The Best awards, Glazers' demands set to delay Manchester United takeover: reports, Man Utd beat West Ham to reach FA Cup quarters as Spurs crash out, Bahrain GP: F1 team rankings ahead of 2023 season-opener, Real Madrid vs Barcelona: Xavi admits Los Blancos still favourites to advance. The team was presented with the Division Three championship trophy - their first trophy in 56 years - in front of 11,000 jubilant fans before the start of their match against Lincoln City. Helm: "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. We had to run up the stairs, through the office doors and out on to the street. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. Among the main outcomes of the inquiry were the banning of new wooden grandstands at all UK sports grounds, the immediate closure of other wooden stands deemed unsafe and the banning of smoking in other wooden stands. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off. 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. Hendrie: "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. Spreading with almost unbelievable speed, a small fire under a wooden. That's when everybody else had the same thought. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. Lincoln City suffered two successive relegations, first to the Fourth Division in 1986, and again in 1987, becoming the first team to be automatically relegated from the Football League itself. A bid of 350 has been made for the original painting and Town will sell 56 prints in memorial of those who lost their lives, with the aim of raising 3,000 for the Bradford Burns Unit. There were no extinguishers in the stand's passageway for fear of vandalism, and one spectator ran to the clubhouse to find one but was overcome by smoke and impeded by others trying to escape. Fifty-six people died. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. 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. [10][16] More than 265 supporters were injured. The fire at a Brooklyn lumber storage building sent plumes of smoke over Williamsburg on Tuesday. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". 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'. (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. Heginbotham died in 1995, aged 61, and was never prosecuted for the stadium fire, despite the coroner later saying he had given serious consideration to bringing a charge of manslaughter as the club had failed to act on three separate warnings about a potential fire risk. 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. The local council was deemed to be one third responsible. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. The fire happened during a football match. All you could hear was sirens and screams. "That was the moment that I realised not everybody was going to get out. ", On 26 January 2016, the IPCC declined calls for an investigation and published its full response online. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. "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. ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. 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. A minute later he saw a small plume of smoke so he poured his coffee on it and so did his son. Martin Fletcher was talking to BBC Look North. An inquiry launched in the aftermath of the disaster led to legislation to improve safety at football grounds. 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. As we move ahead on the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap, sustainability projects are taking center stage. He later died in hospital. Radiated heat from the burning roof of the stand set fire to the clothing of fans trapped underneath. "All you could see was black cloud. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. [4], Although there had been some changes to other parts of the ground, the main stand remained unaltered by 1985. The game was irrelevant. ", "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard. 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. A new book, written by Valley Parade survivor Martin Fletcher, claims then-Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham had previously netted millions of pounds from insurance payouts after at least eight previous fires at businesses he was associated with. She was hysterical and trying to find her three children. [17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230mm) below the floor boards. Fifty-six people were killed, 265 were injured and thousands bore witness to the worst fire disaster in the history of English football. ", 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. "[59], Raymond Falconer's reliability had previously been questioned by Daniel Taylor in The Guardian who stated that: "The Bradford Telegraph and Argus described him as a 'top detective'. 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. Coach Terry Yorath described the events as "the worst day in my life. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. 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. We had not been told anything.". The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. I looked down and I saw my hands melting. 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.
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