They wouldn't let us because then people would get in the way of fire engines, ambulances and police trying to get in. More than 3,500 people were crammed into the main stand area and this prevented people from moving away from the blaze quickly. The stand had been officially condemned and was due to be replaced with a steel structure after the season ended. 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. Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. People were arriving in a daze outside Bradford police headquarters on Saturday evening and early yesterday. It was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling,[21] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices Bradford City Stadium Fire - Saturday 11th May 1985 Bradford, playing into a strong wind, were struggling to break down a Lincoln side already safe from relegation. Mr Delahunte was screaming into his microphone describing the scene until it became impossible to continue broadcasting. He later died in hospital. 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. [39], The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". [10][16] Geoffrey Mitchell said: "There was panic as fans stampeded to an exit which was padlocked. BBC ON THIS DAY | 11 | 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire Mike Harrison, the editor of the Bradford City Football Club fanzine The City Gent, was there on the day. 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. But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. Many who had walked out of the fire stood on the pitch looking back in horror as the flames destroyed the stand. It was clear from what the Chief Fire Officer for West Yorkshire, Mr Graham Karran, said yesterday that the ground was far from safe. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. We had not been told anything.". The flames suddenly appeared and the whole roof took alight,' he said. "[55], Adams also went on to state that "I have read in some newspapers that he is being berated for his campaign to have a new inquiry. 2022 DECOMPRESSION WAS DREAMY . He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. Tarpaulin fell on them and stuck to their clothes and then ignited. [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. We sat in the main stand the week before, but we had decided to move on that day," he says. Club coach Terry Yorath incurred minor injuries while taking part in the rescue. But all the people being treated, we formed a family, a bond.". More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. You could hardly breathe. 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. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. The game was irrelevant.". "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". [10] One eyewitness, Geoffrey Mitchell, told the BBC: "It spread like a flash. I saw one man lying on the ground, burning from head to foot. The inquiry had found that the club had been warned that the accumulation of rubbish beneath the stands was a fire risk. Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. Steel was to be installed in the roof,[8] and the wooden terracing was to be replaced with concrete. "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. "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. Bradford fire: the horrors and the silence that had to be broken One family was in tears, the mother shaking. It was appalling that public money was given to the club while it was still owned by the same shareholders under whose direction the fire had happened. 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. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 13:41. Valley Parade in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was built in 1886 and was initially the home ground of Manningham Rugby Football Club. The 1985 Bradford City Stadium fire remembered - IFSEC Global Saturday began for the fans in a carnival atmosphere at Bradford 's Valley Parade ground a short walk from the city centre. The government inquiry into the disaster concluded the fire spread "faster than a man could run". "I was in the stand opposite when the fire broke out. "The one thing I remember at the time is we were grateful that we got an answer quickly after the inquiry. Watch Missed Warnings on BBC One in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 22:45 BST on Tuesday, 12 May. After 40 minutes of the first half, fans had begun to complain about the drab match and the 0-0 score. The Bradford City stadium fire was the worst fire disaster in the history of football.. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. [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. [2] The main stand was described as a "mammoth structure", but was unusual for its time because of its place on the side of a hill. 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. Lincoln City chairman Bob Dorrian, centre, is joined by Former Imps Players Association chairman Trevor Swinburne, left, and chairman of the Red Imps. Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. 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. Of the 56 people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. The stories of escapes are legion. Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. And all you could smell was burning.". England won the re-match 64. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. But I've never spoken to anyone who thought the fire wasn't anything other than a tragic accident. More than 250 others were injured in one of the biggest disasters at a British football ground. People had walked through turnstiles and along a wooden corridor before descending the steps into their seats. 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. "I got stuck against the wall with the weight of people behind me trying to get over. Artist Paul Town, who now lives in Baildon, was 15 at the time of the fire. 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. Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. Come celebrate the beastly realm and our place in it and with it, an even more radically inclusive and sustainable city and global community in 2023: ANIMALIA! (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. [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. "It made me realise life is too short." It wasn't just something that happened in the past.". After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. 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. Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. The book also raises concerns about the speed of the inquiry and the fact that it commenced a few weeks after the fire and lasted for only a few days, whereas other inquiries into similar incidents, pre and post the Bradford fire, have taken years to come to fruition and months to be heard. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. 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. Of the 56people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. 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. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. Since 1903, when the club was formed, Bradford City Association Football Club had played their home games at the ground. The stand slopes downwards from the South Parade. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. [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. The wooden roof that burned was scheduled to be replaced by a steel roof later that same . When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. Fire kills 50 at soccer stadium - HISTORY However as the game against Lincoln progressed, a fire began just before half-time in the stand that ran alongside the pitch. "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. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. She was hysterical and trying to find her three children. Footage of the accident at this point shows levels of confusion among the spectatorswhile many were trying to escape or to cross the pitch to the relative safety of the neighbouring stands, other spectators were observed cheering or waving to the still-rolling pitchside cameras. The fire brigade arrived at the ground four minutes after they were initially alerted. [5] However, he also warned the club of a build-up of litter beneath the stand because of a gap between the seats. "I saw people die in the stand - but it was only until then that I realised the scale of it.". 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. Edited by BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko. "I looked up and saw the flames. 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. Bradford City stadium fire. A football match in Bradford UK ends "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. The chairman of the football club, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, was near to tears as he explained what had happened. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard. 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. Exactly 79 years to the day after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, another tragic fire occurred in New York City. Bradford City initially prospered in the Second Division only missing out on promotion to the First Division in 1988 after failing to beat Ipswich Town at home on the final day of their first full season back at Valley Parade. 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. [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. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. ', Bradford City Fire Website messages of condolence from around the world, "Chuckle Brothers' single for Bradford City fire anniversary", "Bradford City stadium fire: The untold stories of the 1985 fire", "Emotive play of Bradford City fire disaster raises cash for burns unit", "Book Review: Four Minutes to Hell: The Story of the Bradford City Fire by Paul Firth football book reviews", "Football Focus 1st May 2010 Bradford City Part 1", Bradford City A year of healing Documentary, "Bradford fire: expert demands new investigation into blaze", "Bradford City stadium fire 1985 IPCC investigation decision", "BRADFORD CITY FIRE: Accidental cause of tragedy 'not in any doubt', says detective", "Bradford City fire 'started by cigarette', "Bradford City fire: Briton attacks 'inaccurate' BBC documentary claiming his uncle started blaze", "Bradford fire: Sir Oliver Popplewell defends 1985 inquiry interview in full", Living with Jacko From Touchline to Lifeline, Fifty-Six: The Story of the Bradford Fire, The full Interim Report by Lord Popplewell into the Bradford City Fire, British Medical Journal article on the treatment of burns casualties after the Bradford City Fire, Peter Jackson's account of the Bradford City Fire, Nationally broadcast Yorkshire Television programme covering the fire, broadcast the following day, ITN bulletin covering the fire, also from the following day, ITN bulletin covering the aftermath, from three days later, Chelsea F.C. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. From 50 to 60 yards away, it was burning our faces it was unbearable. It seemed to put it out. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. 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'. Warning: Some readers may find parts of this content distressing. Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . "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. Yet in 2015, allegations surfaced which shifted the focus to the club's then chairman, Stafford Heginbotham. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. I had no idea. "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. The entrances to the stand were all at the rear and were higher than the rest of the ground. He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. 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. By the time the fire brigade arrived they were faced with huge flames and dense smoke. [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. [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. We had not been told anything.". At the final home match against Barnsley at the end of April, Bradford City fans collected more than 8,000 in a bucket collection. Bradford City continues to support the burns unit at the University of Bradford as its official charity. Survival Guide 2022 Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985 | Fire Brigades Union "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. Bradford City stadium fire: BBC documentary says Aussie man to blame We wanted to record the trophy presentation. 1908 - Collinwood school fire, in Collinwood, Ohio (soon absorbed by Cleveland ), on March 4, killed 175. He later said: "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. So I decided to give it that next push. **The Bradford City Stadium Tragedy** - Firehouse Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. It was sort of the good thing to come out of the nightmare," says Simon Parker, a football reporter for the Telegraph and Argus. 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. [22], Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. "[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. "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. "I know it's a clich to say that, but it's true.". And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. The blaze quickly engulfed the stand as Bradford played Lincoln City and claimed the lives of 59 people on May 11, 1985. Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. [53], In 1986, a year after the disaster, Yorkshire Television aired a documentary presented by John Helm entitled Bradford City A Year of Healing. Fifty-six people died. [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. Listen to Valley Parade: Bradford City Fire Remembered on BBC Radio Leeds (18:00 BST) and BBC Radio 5 live (21:00 BST). We, and the world, need Burning Man and Black Rock City more than ever. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. [10][11], Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". Mr Tony Delahunte, who was presenting a programme from the ground for Pennine Radio, said 'The fire seemed to me to start with a smoke bomb. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - HISTORY Bradford City Stadium Fire: The Forgotten Fire Tragedy of 1985 that 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. 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'. Keep an eye out as you ride your bike through the city you will see a new solar-powered Man, fewer gas and . "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. It is impossible so far to be accurate about the precise cause of the fire, with grossly conflicting reports from witnesses. No fire extinguishers had been installed over fears of vandalism and less than four minutes after the fire was reported, the fire had engulfed the whole stand. 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." There is no malicious vendetta, there is no over-exaggeration, there are no trumped-up facts. As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. [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 speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. The smoke was choking. [6] 1908 - Parker Building, New York City, January 10. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. Then the flames and smoke were all over the place.'. The 51 other bodies of children, women and men were so badly burned that identification will take many days. A fire at a third division match between Bradford City and Lincoln City killed 56, including 11 children, and injured hundreds more.