I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. [52], 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. Club coach Terry Yorath incurred minor injuries while taking part in the rescue. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. 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. ", IBT UK Morning Brief - Let the best of International News come to you. At the time of the disaster, many stadiums had perimeter fencing between the stands and the pitch to prevent incidents of football hooliganism particularly pitch invasions which were rife during the 1980s. They stood outside the headquarters, staring at nothing in particular. 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'. Mr Stefan Krolak, a survivor from Bradford , said he saw the smoke start a few seats away from him 'The smoke seemed suddenly to set on fire. 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. As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. So I decided to give it that next push. 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 But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. Disaster struck at 3.43 pm. Football architect Archibald Leitch was commissioned to carry out the work. The inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Sir Oliver Popplewell and known as the Popplewell Inquiry,[25] led to the introduction of new legislation to improve safety at the UK's football grounds. [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. Fletcher said that "The club at the time took no actual responsibility for its actions and nobody has ever really been held accountable for the level of negligence which took place. Town began to paint two years ago, first of the old Bradford Park Avenue ground, before moving onto other stadiums. 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. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. All that was left of. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48hours of the disaster, eventually raised over 3.5million (11.3million today). His son Christopher normally watches from the stand but on Saturday he joined other fans elsewhere. 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. However, as there was no real precedent, most Bradfordians accepted that the fire was a terrible piece of misfortune. Bradford City stadium fire: The untold stories of the 1985 fire that devastated Valley Parade Thirty years after football's 'forgotten tragedy', the truth of what exactly happened when 56. Helm: "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. 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. 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. Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. [5] However, he also warned the club of a build-up of litter beneath the stand because of a gap between the seats. Only one person had been positively identified by police by early last night. [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. [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. She was an. Those with longer memories will also think of the Ibrox disaster of . [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 scene in there was one of silence and shock. "That was the moment that I realised not everybody was going to get out. [8][10] Three men smashed down one door and at least one exit was opened by people outside, which again helped prevent further deaths. When cross examined by QC Robert Smith, then Chairman Stafford Heginbotham said he knew about the fire risk at the ground. Although some attributed Lincoln City's sudden demise to the psychological effects of the fire on its players (together with the resignation of successful manager Colin Murphy shortly before the fire), it symbolised the wider crisis that the introduction of new safety legislation brought to Lincoln's Sincil Bank home. Hundreds more telephoned the police to try to trace relatives. 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 smoke was choking. 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. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. I've never seen anything like it. Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". "I know it's a clich to say that, but it's true.". There is a twin memorial sculpture, unveiled on 11 May 1986, which has the names of the dead inscribed on it. ", Hendrie: "We stayed in the pub for hours. The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. Led by former England international Trevor Cherry, the Bantams won only their third divisional title and earned a return to the second tier of English football for the first time since 1937. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. 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. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. [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. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. The game was irrelevant.". 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 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. "[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. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". The chairman of the football club, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, was near to tears as he explained what had happened. 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. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. 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. 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. And all you could smell was burning.". 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'. Of the 56people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. The team's coach, Mr Terry Yorath, ran on to the pitch to try to help people away from the stand. After 40 minutes of the first half, fans had begun to complain about the drab match and the 0-0 score. Last updated on 10 May 201510 May 2015.From the section Football, "People didn't die because of fires at football grounds. The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx, killed 87 people, the . "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". 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. 'The smoke was very, very dense. Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. They were not able to use water on the stand immediately because this would have hampered attempts to rescue people being dragged by the police and friends from the stand. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. The fire at a Brooklyn lumber storage building sent plumes of smoke over Williamsburg on Tuesday. 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 fire was described as the worst fire disaster in the history of British football, and the worst football related disaster since 66spectators died at Ibrox in 1971. The club's success had swollen the crowd to 10,000 and arguments will rage about fire precautions at the ground. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. "I was in the main stand when the fire happened," he says. "The letters that went to the club, the council's failings, the police's failings, even as supporters we allowed a culture where the gates were locked. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. "[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. "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. 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. 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'. It seemed to put it out. Cigarette smoking was also banned at all grounds with wooden stands. It spelt out 'thank you fans'. "It is hard to imagine how Martin and his mother have managed to cope over the last 30 years and we have always respected him," Harrison says. Many who had walked out of the fire stood on the pitch looking back in horror as the flames destroyed the stand. 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. "We wouldn't normally have covered that game - no question about it. 56 dead and hundreds more injured. Helm: "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. [17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230mm) below the floor boards. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. They were immediately promoted back to the Football League in 1988, and survived for 23 years before being relegated again in 2011. Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. I had no idea. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. Bradford City players line up to observe a minutes silence for the 25th anniversary of the 1985 Bradford stadium fire prior to the Coca Cola League. Some days I had two operations in a day. The fire destroyed the main stand completely and left only burned seats, lamps and metal fences remaining. Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed.