The heat inside the stand literally ignited people where they stood. What Is Burning Man? He asks the reader to make their mind up about whether these fires were a coincidence or not.". Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. I ran to the stand and tried to help people escape. "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. They stood outside the headquarters, staring at nothing in particular. He lit a cigarette and when it was coming to an end he put it down on to the floorboard and tried to put his foot on it to put it out. 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. The 4-alarm fire started in a one-story lumber storage building and spread to an adjacent building . 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. 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. [10][11], Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". 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. The local council was deemed to be one third responsible. Helm later described the start of the fire in an interview to the Express newspaper: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, [A] man over from Australia visiting his son got two tickets to the game. [40] Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and needed crutches to walk because of rheumatoid arthritis. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. [34], During the case, Sir Joseph Cantley stated that: "It is only right that I should say that I think it would be unfair to conclude that Heginbotham, Tordoff, the Board of Directors, or any of them, were intentionally and callously indifferent to the safety of spectators using the 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. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. It remains to be seen whether a new investigation will take place. The flames suddenly appeared and the whole roof took alight,' he said. Then the flames and smoke were all over the place.'. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. Bradford fan David Pendleton, then aged 21 and stood in the main stand: "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. "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. 24 Bradford City A.F.C. "We stayed in the pub for hours. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. Loading. Keep an eye out as you ride your bike through the city you will see a new solar-powered Man, fewer gas and . [10] One eyewitness, Geoffrey Mitchell, told the BBC: "It spread like a flash. "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. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. At 3.40pm, television commentator John Helm remarked upon a small fire in the main stand; in less than four minutes, with the windy conditions, the fire had engulfed the whole stand, trapping some people in their seats. Now they will begin another inquiry, into the cause of the Bradford fire. There is no evidence in the book, he is just pointing out there are some coincidences. All that was left of. "[16] As spectators began to cascade over the wall separating the stand from the pitch, the linesman on that side of the pitch informed referee Norman Glover, who stopped the game with three minutes remaining before half-time. Radiated heat from the burning roof of the stand set fire to the clothing of fans trapped underneath. Treatment of casualties and Burns Research Unit, Dramatisations, documentaries and published works, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council, 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", "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", "The Story of the Bradford Fire: 'could any man really be as unlucky as Stafford Heginbotham? However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. Some repair work was carried out, but in July 1984 the club was warned again, this time by a county council engineer, because of the club's plans to claim for ground improvements from the Football Trust. Another player went into the office space to ensure there was nobody there. He agreed that the inquiry into Bradford, led by the judge Oliver Popplewell, was inadequate and that there are many unanswered questions. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Bradford council introduced its emergency plans procedure yesterday to give aid to many families affected by the disaster. One elderly man started to walk across the pitch with his clothes and face ablaze. 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. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. "All you could see was black cloud. "[28], West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. The main stand at Valley Parade burned down after what was thought to be a dropped cigarette led to flames which engulfed the entire wooden structure. No fire extinguishers had been installed over fears of vandalism and less than four minutes after the fire was reported, the fire had engulfed the whole stand. As we move ahead on the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap, sustainability projects are taking center stage. 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. The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. [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. Together, flanked by undocumented supporters, they managed to clear all but one person who made it to the front of the stand. It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years. "We wouldn't normally have covered that game - no question about it. 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. One man clambered over burning seats to help a fan, as did player John Hawley, and one officer led fans to an exit, only to find it shut and turn around.Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand, ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. He is quoted as saying: "I don't believe the statement of retired Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer at all. "I was in the main stand when the fire happened," he says. 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. Some of those who died were still sitting upright in their seats, covered by remnants of tarpaulin that had fallen from the roof. 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. Fifty-six people died. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. 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. "[35], The total amount of compensation to the 154 claimants was reported to be as high as 20million, with the payouts covered by insurance taken out by the club. Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices The stand had been officially condemned and was due to be replaced with a steel structure after the season ended. 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. [13], The match kicked off at 3:04pm and after forty minutes of the first half, the score remained 00,[14] in what was described as a drab affair with neither team threatening to score. I saw a group of people around the smoke laughing. 'The fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. Police removed the last body from the ground at 4 am yesterday, working under arc lights. We sat in the main stand the week before, but we had decided to move on that day," he says. "It is the little things that show how much people are still involved the fire still has a big impact on people. "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. [11], The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. The fire at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium in which 56 people died and more than 270 were injured is remembered 25 years on. 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. The 1984-85 season had been one of the most successful in Bradford City's 82-year history. 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. Pendleton: "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. 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. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. 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. The man in charge of investigating the fire, Detective Superintendent Kevin Cooper was at the game. The blaze quickly engulfed the stand as Bradford played Lincoln City and claimed the lives of 59 people on May 11, 1985. Stories From 11 May. We had not been told anything.". However as the game against Lincoln progressed, a fire began just before half-time in the stand that ran alongside the pitch. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. 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. 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. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. 1908 - Collinwood school fire, in Collinwood, Ohio (soon absorbed by Cleveland ), on March 4, killed 175. Since 1903, when the club was formed, Bradford City Association Football Club had played their home games at the ground. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. That's when everybody else had the same thought.

Sprocker For Sale West Yorkshire, Power Query Is Not Null Condition, I Hear The Angels Sing Hallelujah, Why Is Plex Transcoding On Local Network, Ord Memorial Chapel Obituaries, Articles B