Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. 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.". Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. 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. Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. The stand slopes downwards from the South Parade. [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. 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. 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. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". [22], Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. 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. "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.". [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. Many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. 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! No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. 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. Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. "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. "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. [45] PCs Peter Donald Barrett and David Charles Midgley, along with spectators Michael William Bland and Timothy Peter Leigh received the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct. Hendrie: "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. 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. "It is unbelievable how quickly the fire took hold. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. [7] As it was the first piece of league silverware that the club had captured since they won the Division Three (North) title 56years earlier, 11,076supporters were in the ground. It was fairly clear that somebody had dropped a lighted match or cigarette between the floorboards.". [31] In 1988, the first compensation payments were made to survivors of the fire, with over 40 people receiving up to 40,000 each. [40] Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and needed crutches to walk because of rheumatoid arthritis. The inquiry had found that the club had been warned that the accumulation of rubbish beneath the stands was a fire risk. 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. "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. 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. But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. Exactly 79 years to the day after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, another tragic fire occurred in New York City. One man in tears said: 'He looked as if he was just going for a stroll. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Revealed: former Bradford chairman linked to at least eight fires before Valley Parade disaster, Martin Fletcher: Maybe the reason I am here is to finally reveal the truth, TheStory of the Bradford Fire: could any man really be as unlucky as Stafford Heginbotham?. Mike Harrison, the editor of the Bradford City Football Club fanzine The City Gent, was there on the day. On 23 February 1987, Sir Joseph Cantley found the club two thirds responsible and the county council (which by this time had been abolished) one third responsible. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. 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. Of the 56people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. 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. [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. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. As he scaled the brick perimeter wall at the front, his father stayed behind to help others escape. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. 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. "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". "How quickly the fire spread is difficult to convey to people.". It is a simple account laid out for all to see. Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. [10][16] More than 265 supporters were injured. I had no idea. Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. [16] Messages of condolence were also received from Helmut Kohl, Chedli Klibi and Felipe Gonzlez. 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. ", On 26 January 2016, the IPCC declined calls for an investigation and published its full response online. The chairman of the football club, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, was near to tears as he explained what had happened. Two or three burly men put their weight against it and smashed the gate open. "It made me realise life is too short." A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. He was completely on fire and it looked as though he simply did not know what had happened to him.'. "Then we ran out in our tracksuits each holding a massive card with a letter. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. 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 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. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. Bradford city council officials, off-duty policemen and guests from Bradford 's twin town, Munchengladbach, were there to celebrate. He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. The fire at a Brooklyn lumber storage building sent plumes of smoke over Williamsburg on Tuesday. ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. The fundraising events included a reunion of the 1966 World Cup Final Starting XI that began with the original starting teams of both England and West Germany, and was held at Leeds United's stadium, Elland Road, in July 1985 to raise funds for the Appeal fund. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. [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. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. Watch Missed Warnings on BBC One in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 22:45 BST on Tuesday, 12 May. Warning: Some readers may find parts of this content distressing. All you could hear was sirens and screams. "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 fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. 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. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". "It is the little things that show how much people are still involved the fire still has a big impact on people. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. "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. However, as there was no real precedent, most Bradfordians accepted that the fire was a terrible piece of misfortune. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. 527 votes, 98 comments. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. [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. "[28], West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. Then the flames and smoke were all over the place.'. [3] It included a main stand which seated 5,300fans, and had room for a further 7,000 standing spectators in the paddock in front. The man we see at 7:50 walking out onto the pitch on fire was a retired mill worker. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. 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. 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. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. I hope you enjoy some of the fascinating stories we have here.#History #Disasters A giant Christian cross, made up of two large charred wooden members[44] that had once been part of the stand, was constructed in front of the middle of the stand and behind the pitchside speaker's platform. The stand had already been condemned, and the demolition teams were due to start work two days later. Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. 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. 1985 disaster in Valley Parade Stadium, Bradford, England. 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. "I feel such information should be made public and people should look at those facts, then make their mind up on those facts. When cross examined by QC Robert Smith, then Chairman Stafford Heginbotham said he knew about the fire risk at the ground. Artist Paul Town, who now lives in Baildon, was 15 at the time of the fire. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. The sling is now used internationally in the treatment of burns. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. One, now re-situated to that end of the stand where the fire began, is a sculpture donated on the initial re-opening of Valley Parade in December 1986 by Sylvia Graucob, a then Jersey-based former West Yorkshire woman. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. "I saw people die in the stand - but it was only until then that I realised the scale of it.". "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. The game was goalless after 40 minutes when play was stopped. Within five minutes the whole stand was engulfed in flames. The blame was through neglect, they didn't have the money to maintain the stand. 'The smoke was very, very dense. He saw smoke coming from a small area of the stand and thought that someone had let off a flare. 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. 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". Last edited: May 11, 2021 May 11, 2019 #2 JohnnyKills Full Member Joined Jan 8, 2016 Messages 6,902 Yeah footage is horrendous isn't it. 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. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. All that was left of the main stand were rows of bare steel and stone, with blackened timbers hanging from the few remaining roof supports. [10] One eyewitness, Geoffrey Mitchell, told the BBC: "It spread like a flash. All Rights Reserved. The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. [53], In 1986, a year after the disaster, Yorkshire Television aired a documentary presented by John Helm entitled Bradford City A Year of Healing. ", There has always been a close bond between the club and its supporters since the fire, he adds. "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." Another player went into the office space to ensure there was nobody there. 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. Police removed the last body from the ground at 4 am yesterday, working under arc lights. A Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund raised 3.5m for the victims and their families. 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. [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. 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. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. A fire at a third division match between Bradford City and Lincoln City killed 56, including 11 children, and injured hundreds more. "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. Luckily, his father arrived home shortly after he did, but 30 years on, he still remembers the young woman who served him a Mars Bar and his father a coffee, who never made it out of the stadium. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. 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. 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. Stories From 11 May. The speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. Although I was only 12 at the time, 11 May 1985 is a day. In the panic that ensued, fleeing crowds escaped on to the pitch but others at the back of the stand tried to break down locked exit doors to escape. It is impossible so far to be accurate about the precise cause of the fire, with grossly conflicting reports from witnesses. ", 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. [citation needed] Mathew Wildman, aged 17 at the time of the fire, commented that "I must have had five different experiments carried out on me with all sorts of new techniques for skin grafts and I had potions injected into me that helped my face repair naturally over time. 56 people dead. What Is Burning Man? [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. He later died in hospital. [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. He agreed that the inquiry into Bradford, led by the judge Oliver Popplewell, was inadequate and that there are many unanswered questions. [46], In 2014, the theatre company Funny You Should Ask (FYSA) premiered their heartfelt tribute to the 56 people who died at the fire. Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. 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. 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. Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. 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. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. The blaze quickly engulfed the stand as Bradford played Lincoln City and claimed the lives of 59 people on May 11, 1985. 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 scene in there was one of silence and shock. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. "[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'. "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. 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 fire: the horrors and the silence that had to be broken Daniel Taylor The policewoman assigned to the grieving Fletchers gets goosebumps when she looks back to 30 years ago. One family was in tears, the mother shaking. Hundreds more telephoned the police to try to trace relatives. His face was burned and his car, which he had parked outside the ground, was destroyed. 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. The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. 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. "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. In the last few years, the BCFC kit-man John Duckworth did a sponsored 73-mile walk between Lincoln's Sincil Bank stadium and Valley Parade, joined by Bradford fans along the way. The fire was described as the worst fire disaster in the history of British football, and the worst football related disaster since 66spectators died at Ibrox in 1971. Martin Fletcher, a Bradford fan who lost three generations of his family in the fire, published a memoir of the tragic event called Fifty-Six The Story Of The Bradford Fire, in which he claimed the blaze at Valley Parade was one of nine fires at businesses owned by or associated with Heginbotham. But I've never spoken to anyone who thought the fire wasn't anything other than a tragic accident. There is no malicious vendetta, there is no over-exaggeration, there are no trumped-up facts. 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]. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48hours of the disaster, eventually raised over 3.5million (11.3million today). As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. 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. You could hardly breathe. There were many cases of heroism, with more than 50 people later receiving police awards or commendations for bravery. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". 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'. The 4-alarm fire started in a one-story lumber storage building and spread to an adjacent building . Hillsborough looms the largest in our collective consciousness, but there were also the many deaths that occurred at Heysel Stadium in 1985, as well as the Bradford City stadium fire that same year. Helm: "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". [6] 1908 - Parker Building, New York City, January 10. [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. BurningMan.NYC will announce the dates and process for the 2023 grant cycle on this site & all BurningMan.NYC social channels in early Spring. We, and the world, need Burning Man and Black Rock City more than ever. I don't see that. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. After 40 minutes of the first half, fans had begun to complain about the drab match and the 0-0 score. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. 'It is the worst day in my life. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. It was clear from what the Chief Fire Officer for West Yorkshire, Mr Graham Karran, said yesterday that the ground was far from safe. Then flames licked the underside of the seats, which were a combination of wood and plastic. "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.
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