"It made me realise life is too short." The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' 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 . We went over to the policeman stood at the corner flag and asked if it was being sorted out, and he said it was under control," Harrison says. 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. However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. "[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'. Helm: "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. Bradford city council officials, off-duty policemen and guests from Bradford 's twin town, Munchengladbach, were there to celebrate. [11], The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. Although I was only 12 at the time, 11 May 1985 is a day. "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. I've never seen anything like it. The only fire extinguishers in the ground were in the clubroom, which is also in the main stand. The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. 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. I don't see that. [31] In 1988, the first compensation payments were made to survivors of the fire, with over 40 people receiving up to 40,000 each. "As I ran away I remember turning around and looking and just seeing this wall of grey smoke pouring out and pushing thousands of people in front of it. The smoke was choking. 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. Soon they were all running for their lives. [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. I ran to the stand and tried to help people escape. 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. The game was goalless after 40 minutes when play was stopped. Part of the Appeal funds were raised by a recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone"[42] from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Carousel by The Crowd (including Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers, who had recorded the 1963 version that led to Liverpool adopting it as their motto and team song), which reached number one in the UK Singles chart. 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. 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. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. [51] Another book; 56: The Story of the Bradford Fire (2015) was written by Martin Fletcher to discuss how the disaster was caused, and follows his loss of his father, brother, uncle and grandfather. 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. However, the responsibility of the Club is, in my view, very much the greater and I apportion responsibility between the two defendants as to two-thirds on the first defendant and one-third on the third (sic) defendant. The 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 blame was through neglect, they didn't have the money to maintain the stand. It is repeated across the country on BBC Two at 23:20 BST on Wednesday, 13 May. Of the 56 people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. 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. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. There is no malicious vendetta, there is no over-exaggeration, there are no trumped-up facts. Within a few hours of the blaze starting, it was established that 56 people had been killed, many as a result of smoke inhalation, although some of them had survived until reaching hospital.[11]. Saturday began for the fans in a carnival atmosphere at Bradford 's Valley Parade ground a short walk from the city centre. It took the firemen four minutes to arrive at the ground but the speed of the fire was such that the blaze also took only four minutes to grip the entire stand. Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. 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. Most of the exits at the back were locked or shut and there were no stewards present to open them, but seven were forced open or found open. ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". England won the re-match 64. The match between Bradford City and Lincoln City, the final game of that season, had started in a celebratory atmosphere with the home team receiving the Third Division championship trophy. 'They did not have a chance. 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. From 50 to 60 yards away, it was burning our faces it was unbearable. But I've never spoken to anyone who thought the fire wasn't anything other than a tragic accident. 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 . 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'. "If we were fed a lie about it being an accident, then we will be educated. Warnings had been issued over the ground's antiquated wooden structure, which had been condemned and was due to be pulled down and replaced with steel and concrete. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Pendleton: "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. I looked down and I saw my hands melting. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). The Man burns on September 02, 2023. [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. Recommended The untold stories of the 1985 fire 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. Football architect Archibald Leitch was commissioned to carry out the work. Some had been crushed as they tried to crawl under turnstiles to escape. People ran onto the pitch with their clothes on fire while others were trapped at the back of the stand where they had gone to try to escape through the turnstiles. The sling is now used internationally in the treatment of burns. 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. [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. 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. Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. [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. An inquiry launched in the aftermath of the disaster led to legislation to improve safety at football grounds. Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. ", "If the inquiry is opened again, we will await to see what evidence there is to prove is wasn't an accident," he says. 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. I had no idea. 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 disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. Eighty names were unaccounted for and there were no positive indications about the cause of the fire. People had walked through turnstiles and along a wooden corridor before descending the steps into their seats. According to ABC News, though, several hundred people in the Chinese city of Luoyang decided to cut loose on Christmas night 2000 by heading to a nightclub housed on the fourth floor of a multi-use industrial building.A fire broke out in the basement of the structure . The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. I don't know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. The game was irrelevant. " Burning Man," " Burning Man Project," " Black Rock City ", and . Four police officers, constables David Britton and John Richard Ingham and chief inspectors Charles Frederick Mawson and Terence Michael Slocombe, and two spectators, Richard Gough and David Hustler, were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for their actions. [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. It occurred during a league match in front of record numbers of spectators, on Saturday, 11 May 1985, killing 56 and injuring at least 265. 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. 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. ", IBT UK Morning Brief - Let the best of International News come to you. [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. Read about our approach to external linking. Burning Man.NYC. As we move ahead on the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap, sustainability projects are taking center stage. 56 dead and hundreds more injured. It was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling,[21] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. Witnesses of the fire have come to terms with the tragedy in different ways.