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The heat was so intense it caused car windows to shatter in the street. They were donated by Bradford's twin city of Hamm, Germany, and are situated in front of Bradford City Hall in both locations. "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. The heat inside the stand literally ignited people where they stood. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. The scene in there was one of silence and shock. 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 "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. Together, flanked by undocumented supporters, they managed to clear all but one person who made it to the front of the stand. I rolled over on my head, jumped up and ran off.". ", "If the inquiry is opened again, we will await to see what evidence there is to prove is wasn't an accident," he says. 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. 2022 DECOMPRESSION WAS DREAMY . [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 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. Artist Paul Town, who now lives in Baildon, was 15 at the time of the fire. He went on to state: "In 1985 fire investigation in Britain was in its infancy and some would say at that time most fire investigators were not much more than dust-kickers. Bradford council introduced its emergency plans procedure yesterday to give aid to many families affected by the disaster. Eight fires in the 18 years before the Bradford City fire were identified, many catastrophic and leading to large insurance payouts. 05/10/15 AT 12:00 PM BST Crowds on the pitch at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium after the stand caught fire Getty Images Fifty-six people were killed, 265 were injured and thousands. The fire brigade arrived at the ground four minutes after they were initially alerted. It was a gruesome sight to see bodies still sitting upright in their seats, covered in tarpaulin. The stand had already been condemned, and the demolition teams were due to start work two days later. The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx, killed 87 people, the . Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. 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. 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]. 1985 disaster in Valley Parade Stadium, Bradford, England. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. 56 people dead. The only fire extinguishers in the ground were in the clubroom, which is also in the main stand. 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. As he scaled the brick perimeter wall at the front, his father stayed behind to help others escape. She was hysterical and trying to find her three children. "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. [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. 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. Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . Those who rescued people were themselves burned in the process. He started to walk home, unsure of what had happened to his father. You could hardly breathe. Some had been crushed as they tried to crawl under turnstiles to escape. 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 sling is now used internationally in the treatment of burns. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). It was nearly double the season's average of 6,610 and included 3,000fans in the ground's main stand. "[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. It's a nice little business and it's something positive that came out of a tragedy. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. Bradford city council officials, off-duty policemen and guests from Bradford 's twin town, Munchengladbach, were there to celebrate. She was an. Copyright , Fire Brigades Union, 2023. Then flames licked the underside of the seats, which were a combination of wood and plastic. 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. Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. Burning Man.NYC. 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. Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The smoke was choking. This day was for them. "That was the legacy of the tragedy. 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. " Burning Man," " Burning Man Project," " Black Rock City ", and . Two or three burly men put their weight against it and smashed the gate open. Today, locals continue to raise money for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit in memory of the victims of the fire. It was unprecedented.". Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. The fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk. [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. 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'. Cigarette smoking was also banned at all grounds with wooden stands. "[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. The 4-alarm fire started in a one-story lumber storage building and spread to an adjacent building . Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 21 in a friendly. As many supporters still required rescue from the stand, they were unable to immediately start fighting the source of the fire. But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. I've never seen anything like it. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. 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. The other, situated by the main entrance, was donated by the club after its 7.5million (13million today) rebuilding of the original main stand in 2002. [] I still have terrible memories of the day, but it is the humanity of those that helped us that I reflect on."[41]. [11], The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. 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. The club's success had swollen the crowd to 10,000 and arguments will rage about fire precautions at the ground. 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. The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises. Town began to paint two years ago, first of the old Bradford Park Avenue ground, before moving onto other stadiums. ", IBT UK Morning Brief - Let the best of International News come to you. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. 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. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". The fire destroyed the main stand completely and left only burned seats, lamps and metal fences remaining. "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. BurningMan.NYC will announce the dates and process for the 2023 grant cycle on this site & all BurningMan.NYC social channels in early Spring. [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. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." His most recent painting is a powerful image; two fans in Bradford and Lincoln City kits, surrounded by 54 other figures. The Bradford City disaster took place on Saturday May 11, 1985 when a flash fire occurred at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 13:41. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. [57] Following the 30th anniversary of the fire, a number of news organisations named this man as Eric Bennett who was visiting his nephew in Bradford from Australia and attended the game on the day. The Man burns on September 02, 2023. "[27], After controversial comments made by Popplewell about the Hillsborough Disaster, Fletcher raised further concerns about the events following the fire saying that "I have many unanswered questions still about the fire in which four of my family died, as does my mother. 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. Keep an eye out as you ride your bike through the city you will see a new solar-powered Man, fewer gas and . Yet many of those with terrible memories of the tragedy also take heart in the compassion born out of the devastation. "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years. One elderly man started to walk across the pitch with his clothes and face ablaze. 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. Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices There is no malicious vendetta, there is no over-exaggeration, there are no trumped-up facts. Mike Harrison, the editor of the Bradford City Football Club fanzine The City Gent, was there on the day. 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. 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! 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. We had not been told anything.". Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. People were arriving in a daze outside Bradford police headquarters on Saturday evening and early yesterday. It is not thought that there was any crowd trouble in this section but one theory the police are investigating is that a flare or smoke-bomb was thrown or was accidentally dropped. Somebody looked round and grabbed me by the hood of my coat to pull me over. People smothered him to extinguish the flames, but he later died of his injuries in hospital. 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 the worst day in my life. The Bradford City stadium fire was the worst fire disaster in the history of football.. Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. [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. 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 Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, Mr Colin Sampson, said yesterday that a team of doctors and pathologists had worked throughout the night trying to identify the dead. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. 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 stories of escapes are legion. After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. Some people seem to have run back up the slope, thinking that they could get back through the turnstiles, and were burned alive. 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. 1909 - Flores Theater fire, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on February 15, killed 250. "I was in the main stand when the fire happened," he says. [53], In 1986, a year after the disaster, Yorkshire Television aired a documentary presented by John Helm entitled Bradford City A Year of Healing. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. ', 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. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. At the time, however, Harrison says, Bradford just wanted to move on. 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 covering anything up, it wasn't avoiding the truth of what happened, everyone knows what happened, everyone knows it shouldn't have happened. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. "As well as those who lost their lives or were injured, there are the relatives and friends, the others who were at the game, and those who would normally have gone to the match but decided not to that day. 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 . I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. People were clambering over the wall on to the ground with their clothes and hair on fire. All that was left of. By the time the fire brigade arrived they were faced with huge flames and dense smoke. Website by, Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985, Fundraising for firefighters and their families. "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". It seemed to put it out. ", On 26 January 2016, the IPCC declined calls for an investigation and published its full response online. [15], At 3:44pm, five minutes before half-time, the first sign of a firea glowing lightwas noticed three rows from the back of block G,[10][16] as reported by television commentator John Helm. Many who had walked out of the fire stood on the pitch looking back in horror as the flames destroyed the stand. Pendleton: "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. "It is the little things that show how much people are still involved the fire still has a big impact on people. It was fairly clear that somebody had dropped a lighted match or cigarette between the floorboards.". 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. ", "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. Fletcher has been the only survivor to publicly challenge the inquiry's findings. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. "I saw people die in the stand - but it was only until then that I realised the scale of it.". "[33], 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. 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." I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. [17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230mm) below the floor boards. [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. The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. "The one thing I remember at the time is we were grateful that we got an answer quickly after the inquiry. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [citation needed] Spectators later spoke of initially feeling their feet becoming warmer; one of them ran to the back of the stand for a fire extinguisher but found none. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. 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'. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. 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. Criticising Bradford City during the case, Mr. Michael Ogden QC, highlighted that the Club 'gave no or very little thought to fire precautions', despite repeated warnings. 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. Soon they were all running for their lives. Recommended The untold stories of the 1985 fire "All you could see was black cloud. Steel was to be installed in the roof,[8] and the wooden terracing was to be replaced with concrete. Part of the service was also held in Urdu and Punjabi as a sign of appreciation to the local ethnically Asian Subcontinental community in Manningham, Bradford and around Valley Parade who had opened their homes to Bradford City supporters to provide assistance in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
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