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Uncensored coverage of the fire was transmitted minutes after the event on World of Sport and the BBC's Grandstand after the video cassette was physically driven to Yorkshire Television. "[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. 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. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. 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. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. As we move ahead on the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap, sustainability projects are taking center stage. [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. 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. So I decided to give it that next push. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard. Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. At 3.40pm, five minutes before half-time, a glowing light was spotted three rows from the back of block G. "We were stood in line with the 18-yard, the penalty area, when we saw some smoke and a bit of fire diagonally from where we were. Soon they were all running for their lives. Forty-two minutes into the first half of the game, he looked to his left to see smoke and flames rising from the old wooden seats. We had not been told anything.". It detailed the safety work which would be carried out at Valley Parade as a result of the club's promotion, admitting the ground was "inadequate in so many ways for modern requirements". The next day work began on clearing the burnt out shell of the stand, and Justice Popplewell released his findings into the disaster. "We couldn't help because there were so many people streaming towards us, to our side of the pitch, to get away from the heat. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. Witnesses of the fire have come to terms with the tragedy in different ways. More than 3,500 people were crammed into the main stand area and this prevented people from moving away from the blaze quickly. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. The plastic surgeon who treated the injuries of over 200, Professor David Sharpe, went on to set up a world-renowned burns research facility at the University of Bradford. Today marks the 35th anniversary of one of the worst disasters in the history of British football. Then the flames and smoke were all over the place.'. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." [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. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. ", Hendrie: "We stayed in the pub for hours. 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 . After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. [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 heat inside the stand literally ignited people where they stood. People were falling on to each other and screaming. "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. I had no idea. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". [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. 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. "We couldn't run back down the tunnel. 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. "If we were fed a lie about it being an accident, then we will be educated. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. Lincoln City's board responded by committing 1.1million (3.5million today) to their ground's renovation in the year that immediately followed the fire at Valley Parade, and over the following decade made improvements that eventually totalled 3million. When Town reached the Midland Road side of the pitch, he was faced with horrific scenes of the injured being treated and comforted by ambulance crews, fans and players. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. [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. Those with longer memories will also think of the Ibrox disaster of . Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 21 in a friendly. [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. People were arriving in a daze outside Bradford police headquarters on Saturday evening and early yesterday. "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx, killed 87 people, the . The Bradford City stadium fire was the worst fire disaster in the history of football.. Nigel Adams who worked for 12 years as a fire investigator with a British fire service was spurred on by the book to join the call for a fresh inquiry, stating that Fletcher's book was "one of the best accounts of a fire, as seen from a victim's point of view, and as a piece of investigative writing, I have ever read". Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . Smoke was seen coming from the third row in the section but people are apparently used to seeing smoke flares on the Bradford ground. 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. The man we see at 7:50 walking out onto the pitch on fire was a retired mill worker. His face was burned and his car, which he had parked outside the ground, was destroyed. 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. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". 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. Although I was only 12 at the time, 11 May 1985 is a day. He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. At the final home match against Barnsley at the end of April, Bradford City fans collected more than 8,000 in a bucket collection. Some days I had two operations in a day. We had not been told anything.". Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. There were no fire extinguishers. 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 scene when I arrived was horrendous. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". 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. I don't know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. 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'. 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. Stories From 11 May. 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. 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]. [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 stand had already been condemned, and the demolition teams were due to start work two days later. "That's when I thought 'this is time to get out of here'. 'It is the worst day in my life. They wouldn't let us because then people would get in the way of fire engines, ambulances and police trying to get in. 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 . [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. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. More than 250 others were injured in one of the. "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. Each year Lincoln send representatives to the annual memorial service in Bradford city centre and between 2007 and 2009, were managed by Bradford's captain that day, Peter Jackson. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. [22], Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. He later said: "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. The Bradford Burns Unit was set up by Professor David Sharpe after he received many of the victims following the fire. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. It made me realise life is too short and I'm a happier person for it.". Town began to paint two years ago, first of the old Bradford Park Avenue ground, before moving onto other stadiums. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. The timber construction of St. Andrew's Stand, Main Stand and the roof of its popular Railway End terrace were immediately condemned as fire hazards, which saw seating capacity briefly cut to nil. [10][16] Geoffrey Mitchell said: "There was panic as fans stampeded to an exit which was padlocked. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. Supporters either ran upwards to the back of the stand or downwards to the pitch to escape. 527 votes, 98 comments. 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. On 11 May 1985 a fire erupted in the midst of a third-division tie between Bradford City and Lincoln City at Valley Parade, killing 54 home supporters and two Lincoln fans. The Bradford City disaster took place on Saturday May 11, 1985 when a flash fire occurred at the Valley Parade stadium in 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. 1908 - Collinwood school fire, in Collinwood, Ohio (soon absorbed by Cleveland ), on March 4, killed 175. Mike Harrison, the editor of the Bradford City Football Club fanzine The City Gent, was there on the day. He later died in hospital. "Then we ran out in our tracksuits each holding a massive card with a letter. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. The flames suddenly appeared and the whole roof took alight,' he said. Steel was to be installed in the roof,[8] and the wooden terracing was to be replaced with concrete. 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. People were clambering over the wall on to the ground with their clothes and hair on fire. It is impossible so far to be accurate about the precise cause of the fire, with grossly conflicting reports from witnesses. Mr Delahunte was screaming into his microphone describing the scene until it became impossible to continue broadcasting. [5] However, he also warned the club of a build-up of litter beneath the stand because of a gap between the seats. "That was the moment that I realised not everybody was going to get out. A call was made on a police radio to the police operations room in Bradford and relayed to the fire brigade at 3.43 pm. Television cameras spotted the outbreak of fire in Valley Parade's main stand at 15:40 BST. The club's success had swollen the crowd to 10,000 and arguments will rage about fire precautions at the ground. Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.[10]. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. The scene in there was one of silence and shock. Pendleton: "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. [45] In total, 28 police officers and 22 supporters, who were publicly documented as having saved at least one life, later received police commendations or bravery awards. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. The stories of escapes are legion. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. Artist Paul Town, who now lives in Baildon, was 15 at the time of the fire. 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.