", 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. "That was the legacy of the tragedy. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. I had no idea. [39], The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. Mr Delahunte was screaming into his microphone describing the scene until it became impossible to continue broadcasting. Hendrie: "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. You may notice some big changes in Black Rock City this year. "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. The Bradford City Stadium Fire 1985 - The Football Inferno The worst fire disaster in English football history played out on live television on May 11, after Valley Parade's main stand caught fire during a match between Bradford City and Lincoln City on . Keep an eye out as you ride your bike through the city you will see a new solar-powered Man, fewer gas and . Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. Another player went into the office space to ensure there was nobody there. The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. Pendleton: "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. Bradford City Stadium Fire: The Forgotten Fire Tragedy of 1985 that **The Bradford City Stadium Tragedy** - Firehouse We, and the world, need Burning Man and Black Rock City more than ever. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. I saw a group of people around the smoke laughing. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. [10][11], Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. Bradford City Stadium Fire - Saturday 11th May 1985 It was a gruesome sight to see bodies still sitting upright in their seats, covered in tarpaulin. Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.[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. BurningMan.NYC will announce the dates and process for the 2023 grant cycle on this site & all BurningMan.NYC social channels in early Spring. ", There has always been a close bond between the club and its supporters since the fire, he adds. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. 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. Burning Man NYC 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 There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". Someone came in and shouted: 'Get out, get out there's a fire'. Helm: "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". Christmas Day is supposed to be happy and pleasant, a time to gather with loved ones for a chill and relaxing celebration. When cross examined by QC Robert Smith, then Chairman Stafford Heginbotham said he knew about the fire risk at the ground. Pendleton: "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. The game was irrelevant.". 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. The only fire extinguishers in the ground were in the clubroom, which is also in the main stand. After 40 minutes of the first half, fans had begun to complain about the drab match and the 0-0 score. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. 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". "[23], On the 25th anniversary of the fire, the University of Bradford established the United Kingdom's largest academic research centre in skin sciences as an extension to its plastic surgery and burns research unit.[24]. They were at fault, but the fault was that no-one in authority seems ever to have properly appreciated the real gravity of this fire hazard and consequently no-one gave it the attention it certainly ought to have received. Last updated on 10 May 201510 May 2015.From the section Football, "People didn't die because of fires at football grounds. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. The Bradford City stadium fire : r/MorbidReality ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". Bradford City Fire disaster: 36 years on the city's pioneering burns But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." "[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'. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). 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. 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." 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. [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. Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. [47] Scriptwriters of the play spent hours with the survivors and victims families. 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 smoke was choking. Hideous images linger after carnage of 'celebration' day Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. It is repeated across the country on BBC Two at 23:20 BST on Wednesday, 13 May. Football architect Archibald Leitch was commissioned to carry out the work. 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. They wouldn't let us because then people would get in the way of fire engines, ambulances and police trying to get in. Bradford City stadium fire: BBC documentary says Aussie man to blame "All you could see was black cloud. Hendrie: "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. So I decided to give it that next push. 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". 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 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]. Grenfell among the UK's worst fire and tower tragedies 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. Some repair work was carried out, but in July 1984 the club was warned again, this time by a county council engineer, because of the club's plans to claim for ground improvements from the Football Trust. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. Television cameras spotted the outbreak of fire in Valley Parade's main stand at 15:40 BST. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 13:41. "I looked up and saw the flames. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. 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. However, as there was no real precedent, most Bradfordians accepted that the fire was a terrible piece of misfortune. Fire disaster at football match (Bradford City stadium fire) Copyright 2023 IBTimes UK. Burning Man.NYC. 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'. 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. Of the 56 people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. Radiated heat from the burning roof of the stand set fire to the clothing of fans trapped underneath. The fact the inquiry also embraced the investigation into another incident which happened on the same day, a riot in which a young boy died at Birmingham City, makes it seem more frivolous. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. Fire kills 50 at soccer stadium - HISTORY That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. Some days I had two operations in a day. Warning: Some readers may find parts of this content distressing. 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. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - HISTORY Martin Fletcher was talking to BBC Look North. The smoke was choking. As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. We had not been told anything.". [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. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. He saw smoke coming from a small area of the stand and thought that someone had let off a flare. Martin Fletcher, whose brother, father, grandfather and uncle all died in the fire: "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. Although I was only 12 at the time, 11 May 1985 is a day. 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. As many supporters still required rescue from the stand, they were unable to immediately start fighting the source of the fire. The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. All existing grandstands deemed fire risks were faced with immediate closure. "It is the little things that show how much people are still involved the fire still has a big impact on people. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. We didn't know how serious it was.". There is no malicious vendetta, there is no over-exaggeration, there are no trumped-up facts. "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. 'They did not have a chance. There has been reports of people lighting paper under the seats, and it was important that as many fans as possible who were in the stand or at the Kop end contacted the police. The Bradford City disaster took place on Saturday May 11, 1985 when a flash fire occurred at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England. Bradford City continues to support the burns unit at the University of Bradford as its official charity. The sling is now used internationally in the treatment of burns. "Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham had been?" 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. What Is Burning Man? The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx, killed 87 people, the . "[28], West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. 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. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". List of building or structure fires - Wikipedia [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. 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. 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 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. 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. Yet in 2015, allegations surfaced which shifted the focus to the club's then chairman, Stafford Heginbotham. [11], The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. 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. ", IBT UK Morning Brief - Let the best of International News come to you. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. Bits of my arms, bits of my legs, part of my face, part of my scalp. 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? And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. (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. People were arriving in a daze outside Bradford police headquarters on Saturday evening and early yesterday. The wooden roof that burned was scheduled to be replaced by a steel roof later that same . 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. Bradford City stadium fire disaster remembered - BBC Sport "We went out on to the pitch and I could see so many happy faces. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. Mike Harrison, the editor of the Bradford City Football Club fanzine The City Gent, was there on the day. 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. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. [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. Within five minutes the whole stand was engulfed in flames. "The letters that went to the club, the council's failings, the police's failings, even as supporters we allowed a culture where the gates were locked. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". 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. Soon they were all running for their lives. I ran to the stand and tried to help people escape. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. [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. Bradford City Stadium Fire - 36 years ago today | RedCafe.net From 50 to 60 yards away, it was burning our faces it was unbearable. [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. The fire at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium in which 56 people died and more than 270 were injured is remembered 25 years on. 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. At 3.40pm, television commentator John Helm remarked upon a small fire in the main stand; in less than four minutes, with the windy conditions, the fire had engulfed the whole stand, trapping some people in their seats. Other parents whose children had not arrived home on Saturday called at the police station or sat in cars outside, waiting for news. More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. Samuel Firth, a founder of the supporters' club, was the oldest victim at 86; four 11-year-old boys were the youngest. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. 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). He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. They stood outside the headquarters, staring at nothing in particular. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. 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. Stories From 11 May. Surviving supporters, former Bradford players, the sole television commentator at the stadium and the judge who led the government inquiry tell the BBC about that fateful afternoon and its aftermath. "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. The Bradford city stadium fire. 56 people died when a - reddit Although there was no perimeter fencing, such as led to the devastating crush at Hillsborough, locked turnstiles meant that many fans who tried to escape by that means were killed or seriously injured. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. They were donated by Bradford's twin city of Hamm, Germany, and are situated in front of Bradford City Hall in both locations. Like you, we're already preparing for Black Rock City to rise again. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. 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. [40] Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and needed crutches to walk because of rheumatoid arthritis. 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. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. I was there in hospital for eight weeks - it felt like a lifetime. Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. [11] Those who escaped were taken out of the ground to neighbouring homes and a pub, where a television screened World of Sport, which broadcast video recorded of the fire just an hour after it was filmed. People were clambering over the wall on to the ground with their clothes and hair on fire. He was completely on fire and it looked as though he simply did not know what had happened to him.'. 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. [52], On 1 May 2010, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fire the football TV show Football Focus was hosted from Valley Parade by Dan Walker, the show included interviews with Terry Yorath and John Hendrie. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". The stories of escapes are legion. " Burning Man," " Burning Man Project," " Black Rock City ", and . Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. "[11] Police Superintendent Barry Osborne, divisional commander for the area, said many of his officers cried when they saw how badly people had been burned. Many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. [8][9] In the crowd were local dignitaries and guests from three of Bradford's twin townsVerviers in Belgium, and Mnchengladbach and Hamm in West Germany. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. 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 entrances to the stand were all at the rear and were higher than the rest of the ground. I've never seen anything like it. He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. A few minutes later, he felt a thump on his back from his father, who told him to run. [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.