Christopher Hammond, who was 12 on the day, said on the 20th anniversary of the fire: "As a 12-year-old, it was easy to move on – I didn't realise how serious it was until I looked at the press coverage over the next few days. 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. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. 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. "[16] As spectators began to cascade over the wall separating the stand from the pitch, the linesman on that side of the pitch informed match referee Norman Glover, who stopped the game with three minutes remaining before half-time. However as the fire continued to burn, the scenes at Bradford’s Valley Parade turned into a panic. And so, too, is the black tragicomedy which can exist at the boundaries. The smoke was choking. or "How unusual was that degree of rapidity?" Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. IFSEC Global. "[24], 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.[25]. The men with no hair feeling the searing pain first; supporters entering hospital with their hands melted to their heads by the asphalt which has leaked from the stadium roof; a fan's trilby hat igniting. "What kind of 'mechanism'?" (2015), 2003 Football League Third Division play-off Final, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradford_City_stadium_fire&oldid=1023313432, Building and structure fires in the United Kingdom, 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 December 2018, Articles needing additional references from May 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from December 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Fan attempted to extinguish a lit cigarette, it slipped through floorboards and fell on trash, igniting it. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. 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]. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. Treatment of casualties and Burns Research Unit, Dramatisations, documentaries and published works, 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", "Bradford fire: forgotten tragedy of the Eighties", "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". 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. 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. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." 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. However, the fire had consumed the stand entirely by that point and they were faced with huge flames and very dense smoke. Today marks the 35th anniversary of one of the worst disasters in the history of British football. That was the open and shut case, the inquiry into the disaster chaired by Sir Oliver Popplewell, a High Court judge, concluded. That was nothing compared with the time it took to interview witnesses in the Hillsborough Inquiry.". Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. [31], The outcome of the test case resulted in over 154 claims being addressed (110 civilians and 44 police officers)[32] by the injured or bereaved. [11], 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. It was Fletcher's mother, Susan, who had always said that she did not believe the fire was an accident and who talked of the other blazes at businesses owned or linked to Stafford Heginbotham, the Bradford City chairman of the day. [46] 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. Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 2–1 in a friendly. The play reflects that it had been "the Yorkshire way" not to make a fuss, to bear a loss and move on. 0:12. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Ran. "I became an adult overnight at 12 and I'm still there," Fletcher says, and you wonder what's next, now that the book which has become his life's work is published. This early part of the narrative is so readable that you wonder how Fletcher, a qualified accountant, did not wind up as a writer. They reveal how experienced scientists were clearly astonished by how the spread of the fire could have been so rapid. As Fletcher's investigations have given his book a huge profile, so its subtler components have in many ways been overlooked. [14], The stand's wooden roof, covered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing felt, offered no resistance to the flames. "[34], Central to the test case were two letters sent to Bradford City's Club Secretary by the West Yorkshire Fire Brigade; the second letter dated 18 July 1984 specifically highlighted in full the improvements needed to be actioned at the ground as well as the fire risk at the main stand. A half dozen walked out. Fans flee to the pitch to avoid the flames in the wooden main stand, Mr Justice Popplewell, who led the inquiry into the fire, at the 'Turnstile Shrine' in the stadium (Rex), Martin Fletcher, author of '56: The Story of the Bradford Fire', A relative of one of the victims breaks down amid the ruins of the stadium (Rex), Thirty years after football's 'forgotten tragedy', the truth of what exactly happened when 56 people died in a fire at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium remains elusive, Claims the disaster was started deliberately 'nonsense', Archives reveal the desperate rush to conjure an explanation, New evidence casts more doubt on verdict fire was accident, Bradford City stadium fire: The untold stories of the 1985 fire, Booking.com discount code: 10% with Level 1 Genius membership, Use this Debenhams discount and save up to 70% on men's lines - Spring offer, Ideal World Promo: Up to 30% discount off garden essentials, Take £12 off your £120 purchase using this AliExpress promo code, Argos discount code for 15% off selected Samsung Galaxy phones. The nephew of a man accused of starting the deadly fire at Bradford City's stadium has hit out at claims that his uncle was responsible, describing them as 'mind-bogglingly inaccurate'. Here, she recalls the fateful decision that saved her. However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. Ran home and put the television on." The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises. [10][11] The city's newspaper, the Telegraph & Argus, published a souvenir issue for the day, entitled "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". In March 1985, the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. 0:19. Steel was to be installed in the roof,[8] and the wooden terracing was to be replaced with concrete. You could hardly breathe. I don't see that. It seemed to put it out. Fletcher has taken facts and presented them in such a way that it should make it moralistically impossible for this incident not to be looked at again. Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. Some had been crushed as they tried to crawl under turnstiles to escape. Nothing surprising in the construction of the stand to give this rate of fire growth," Woolley writes in an untitled script which appears to be his own notes from the first day of Popplewell's Inquiry. The match was recorded by Yorkshire Television for their regional edition of the ITV Sunday afternoon football show The Big Match. Scout. Down there in the blackness lay tissues of debris which were testament to the ramshackle stadium's neglect. Police worked until 4 am the next morning, under lighting, to remove all the bodies. Even the received wisdom is enough to make you rage against football's breathtaking complacency: the same complacency which would turn the terrace at Hillsborough into a killing ground, four years later. Gray Kelley … One supporter found his way on to the pitch despite burning from head to foot, but he later died in hospital. Among the main outcomes of the inquiry were the banning of new wooden grandstands at all UK sports grounds, the immediate closure of other wooden stands deemed unsafe and the banning of smoking in other wooden stands. Thank you for telling this," said the woman, who was perhaps 60 or so, to one of the young people whose stage play, based on football's Bradford disaster, had just concluded on the small theatre space behind her. [40], The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". Club coach Terry Yorath incurred minor injuries while taking part in the rescue. 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. Jesus. "[38], Fletcher subsequently published a book in 2015, Fifty-Six: The Story of the Bradford Fire which revealed a history of fires at businesses owned by the Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham. The fire destroyed the main stand completely and left only burned seats, lamps and metal fences remaining. But they had done their job. That certainly changed when Martin Fletcher told his story. Two or three burly men put their weight against it and smashed the gate open. There actually used to be an old saying in Bradford: "If you see smoke go up in Bradford after 6pm, that'll be one of Stafford's." [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. A charred copy of the local paper from Monday, 4 November 1968, was among the litter. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. 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. "But I'd never heard of the Bradford disaster until I auditioned for this," she says. The untold stories of the 1985 fire that devastated valley parade thirty years after footballs forgotten tragedy the truth of what exactly. The files show how the possibility of arson was not even touched upon or tested. "I was out shopping in Bradford and he had gone to the match," she says. [48] Scriptwriters of the play spent hours with the survivors and victims families. His afternoon intersected with that of Preston, who was in an ambulance on his way to St Luke's hospital to be treated for burns when a 12-year-old was bundled aboard, concerned only at the moment to know "how did Leeds United get on" that day. Synopsis. 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). As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. 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. At 3:44 pm, five minutes before half-time, the first sign of a fire—a glowing light—was noticed three rows from the back of block G, as reported by TV commentator John Helm. "[17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230 mm) below the floor boards. Yorkshire Evening Post. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. 0:17. It was 30 years ago. At Valley Parade there are now two memorials. Presumably he’s the one that’s shown in the above video. [11] The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. The stand had already been condemned, and the demolition teams were due to start work two days later. "Thank you. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off. Bradford City stadium fire: ‘Police were to blame’ for most life lost in tragedy. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. Of the 56 people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. [52] 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. "The Story of the Bradford Fire: 'could any man really be as unlucky as Stafford Heginbotham? One retired mill worker made his way to the pitch, but was walking about on fire from head to foot. "Why should they not still want answers?" [8][10] Three men smashed down one door and at least one exit was opened by people outside, which again helped prevent further deaths. It only took four minutes for the entire stand to be engulfed in flames. In the mass 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, and many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. The blaze began to spread, and the roof and wooden stands were soon on fire. 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. The scriptwriters' hours of interviews with those caught up in the horror are distilled into the narratives of three survivors, and the casual horrors of what befell football supporters that day are all in there. 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. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48 hours of the disaster, eventually raised over £3.5 million (£10.7 million today). Mr Justice Popplewell, who led the inquiry into the fire, at the 'Turnstile Shrine' in the stadium (Rex) It was during this treatment that Professor Sharpe began to create the Bradford Sling,[22] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. "Yes you've already told us you were concerned," the inquiry's QC effectively says, before he moves the conversation along. Bradford City stadium fire: How the Bantams paid a fitting tribute to one of football’s forgotten tragedies On the 35th anniversary of the disaster at Valley Parade when 56 … The Bradford City stadium fire was still the worst sporting tragedy of its kind in England at the time. The city has seemed to want it to remain the forgotten disaster, though for many, the sense of what-might-have-been is too acute to want to block out the past. "When I read the Popplewell transcripts I could see they were processing 10-15 witnesses a day. "The rumours of the fire came slowly and took hold slowly but when things became clear, I threw down my bags and ran. [50], Parrs Wood Press published Four Minutes to Hell: The Story of the Bradford City Fire (2005) by author Paul Firth;[51] the title refers to the estimated time it took for the stand to be completely ablaze from the first flames being spotted. [54], In 1986, a year after the disaster, Yorkshire Television aired a documentary presented by John Helm entitled Bradford City – A Year of Healing. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000 spectators. 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.[55]. They were immediately promoted back to the Football League in 1988, and survived for 23 years before being relegated again in 2011. His call was misheard, and instead the fire brigade were radioed. Bradford City Football Club Fire Disaster 11 May 1985. City maintained their superiority and opened up an 11-point gap over the rest of the league by February, and were assured of the championship title courtesy of a 2–0 victory against Bolton Wanderers in the penultimate game of the season, guaranteeing Division Two football for the first time since 1937. In the end, the Bradford City Stadium fire was the result of a litany of missed warnings. [53], 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. Fire on Upper Castle Street, Bradford. For the 30th anniversary of the fire a new version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded at Voltage Studios in Bradford. I do not include the people currently running the club, who have always displayed a great, sensitive duty to the memory of those who died. It's certainly how Mumtaz Ibrahim feels about the day when, as a newly married 20-year-old, she thought her young husband had been killed in the flames. It's hard to avoid the sense that Fletcher might have done, had it not been for that fateful May afternoon, which took away so many of the buttresses of his life. No follow up question. "Yes," he told the inquiry when asked if he was "cautious" about the conclusion he had made about a match causing the fire. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. This was all somehow ignored, put off, filed as something to sort out later. [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. It detailed the safety work which would be carried out as a result of the club's promotion, admitting the ground was "inadequate in so many ways for modern requirements". [23], Immediately after the fire, Professor Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. "[29], West Yorkshire Metropolitan Borough Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. Woolley's notes again: "Many referred to the smell of burning plastics." "That made me angry: that people don't know about this.". [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. The 1985 Bradford City Stadium fire remembered. I don't know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from… the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding. Or as a football commentator for that matter. [30] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. Those who helped are reluctant heroes now. Danni Phillips, the young London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art actor who spent hour after hour listening back to the scriptwriters' interviews in preparation for her beautifully observed role in The 56, hails from South Yorkshire, half an hour down the M1 and her father played football for Halifax Town. 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. 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. It's gone," he says. Patsy Hollinger, secretary of the Bradford City supporters' club at the time of the fire, says: 'It's a shame this has taken 30 years to come out.' Fire at Bradford school (video: Glynn Beck) Yorkshire Evening Post. 0:06. 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. He and his mother rattled around in the beautiful detached Nottingham home afterwards and the place "was almost mocking you, like the birds in the trees," he says. Police Identify Australian Man Whose Dropped Cigarette Started Police have revealed the identity of the man who they believe was responsible for starting the fire at bradford citys stadium that killed 56 people according to a documentary. He established that there had been eight other fires at businesses owned by or associated with the entrepreneur, who > died in 1995, aged 61. It is Mrs Ibrahim's sentiment which seems to be most prevalent in Manningham, the British Asian district bordering Valley Parade, where many locals took injured and traumatised people into their homes that 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. [citation needed], 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. "[56], 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. [...] I still have terrible memories of the day, but it is the humanity of those that helped us that I reflect on."[42]. 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 Valley Parade fire took hold, it has always been said, because a match must have been dropped into the reservoir of rubbish in the dark cavity beneath the main stand's seats. Above all else, it is a beautifully observed and incredibly detailed memoir of a son's relationship with the father he lost at the age of 12. [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project, see a list of open tasks, and join in discussions on the project's talk page. Brief Synopsis: On Saturday 11 th May 1985 during a televised third division football match between Bradford City and Lincoln City a fire started within block G, underneath the wooden seating area, within the main stand of the Bradford City Football ground at Valley Parade.
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