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. [45] 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. Most recognizably, tens of thousands of Burners gather annually to build Black Rock City, a participative temporary metropolis . [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. [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. After its renovation in 1990 they named the home end of their ground the 'Stacey-West Stand', in honour of Bill Stacey and Jim West, the two Lincoln City supporters who were amongst the 56 to die at Bradford. 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. [6] 1908 - Parker Building, New York City, January 10. The smoke was choking. More than 3,500 people were crammed into the main stand area and this prevented people from moving away from the blaze quickly. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. 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. Bradford City Stadium Fire - 36 years ago today | RedCafe.net Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. For the 30th anniversary of the fire a new version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded at Voltage Studios in Bradford. "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. Fifty-six people died. Together, flanked by undocumented supporters, they managed to clear all but one person who made it to the front of the stand. 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. A bid of 350 has been made for the original painting and Town will sell 56 prints in memorial of those who lost their lives, with the aim of raising 3,000 for the Bradford Burns Unit. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 13:41. "I got stuck against the wall with the weight of people behind me trying to get over. Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.[10]. This included the banning of new wooden grandstands at all sports venues in the UK. His face was burned and his car, which he had parked outside the ground, was destroyed. 'The fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. There were no fire extinguishers. 56 dead and hundreds more injured. The blame was through neglect, they didn't have the money to maintain the stand. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. 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. "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. However, the fire had consumed the stand entirely by that point and they were faced with huge flames and very dense smoke. Bradford City Stadium Fire - Saturday 11th May 1985 He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. Bits of my arms, bits of my legs, part of my face, part of my scalp. Saturday began for the fans in a carnival atmosphere at Bradford 's Valley Parade ground a short walk from the city centre. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. It was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling,[21] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. Bradford fire: The Valley Parade disaster 30 years on [39], The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". People were falling on to each other and screaming. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. The Man burns on September 02, 2023. 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. [8], The Bradford City matchday squad of players and staff consisted of Terry Yorath, Trevor Cherry, Chris Withe, Don Goodman, Eric McManus, Tony Clegg, John Hawley, Dave Evans, Bryan Edwards, John Hendrie, Mark Ellis, Stuart McCall, Peter Jackson, Bobby Campbell, Martin Singleton and Greg Abbott. 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. ", There has always been a close bond between the club and its supporters since the fire, he adds. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. Bradford City stadium fire | Football Wiki | Fandom 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. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. 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. People were scrambling for their lives to get out, and I know having sat in that stand normally that it is difficult and there is a drop to get to the pitch level," Harrison says. Edited by BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko. "Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham had been?" In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. But the sheer density of numbers coupled with the thick, choking smoke made people collapse. [11], The disaster also had a long-lasting effect on the fans. I dread to imagine how many more could have died if the wind had been blowing in the direction of the pitch, instead of away from it. [36], In 2010, Susan Fletcher's son and survivor of the Bradford City fire (and witness to the Hillsborough disaster), Martin Fletcher, openly criticised the club's hierarchy at the time of the fire and the subsequent investigation. ", "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". Burning Man Countdown | Burning Man People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. He saw smoke coming from a small area of the stand and thought that someone had let off a flare. 24 Bradford City A.F.C. Helm: "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. The match was recorded by Yorkshire Television for their regional edition of the ITV Sunday afternoon football show The Big Match. Lincoln City chairman Bob Dorrian, centre, is joined by Former Imps Players Association chairman Trevor Swinburne, left, and chairman of the Red Imps. The Bradford City stadium fire : r/MorbidReality "If we were fed a lie about it being an accident, then we will be educated. His most recent painting is a powerful image; two fans in Bradford and Lincoln City kits, surrounded by 54 other figures. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. [15] They included three who tried to escape through the toilets, 27 who were found by exit K and turnstiles 6 to 9 at the rear centre of the stand, and two elderly people who had died in their seats. [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. Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. Somebody looked round and grabbed me by the hood of my coat to pull me over. Bradford City fire was started by a tourist who dropped a cigarette People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. "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. Bradford city council officials, off-duty policemen and guests from Bradford 's twin town, Munchengladbach, were there to celebrate. As he scaled the brick perimeter wall at the front, his father stayed behind to help others escape. People had walked through turnstiles and along a wooden corridor before descending the steps into their seats. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. 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. The club's success had swollen the crowd to 10,000 and arguments will rage about fire precautions at the ground. Copyright 2023 IBTimes UK. It was an awful thing to watch.". ", Hendrie: "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. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. He later said: "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. Bradford, playing into a strong wind, were struggling to break down a Lincoln side already safe from relegation. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. Eight fires in the 18 years before the Bradford City fire were identified, many catastrophic and leading to large insurance payouts. "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. It was fairly clear that somebody had dropped a lighted match or cigarette between the floorboards.". Bradford City stadium fire disaster remembered - BBC Sport However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. 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 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 [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. 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. 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 . Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. Fire disaster at football match (Bradford City stadium fire) The fire destroyed the main stand completely and left only burned seats, lamps and metal fences remaining. 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. [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. Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. 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'. Fletcher, who was 12 at the time of the fire, does not make any direct allegations but he does believe Heginbotham's history with fires resulting in payouts of around 27m in today's terms warrants further investigation. Bradford council introduced its emergency plans procedure yesterday to give aid to many families affected by the disaster. [10][11], Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". 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Only then do you realise the huge network of people the fire involved. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. He asks the reader to make their mind up about whether these fires were a coincidence or not.". "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. A capacity 6,000 crowd attended a multi-denominational memorial service, held on the pitch in the sunny shadow of the burnt out stand at Valley Parade in July 1985. The 1984-85 season had been one of the most successful in Bradford City's 82-year history. The entrances to the stand were all at the rear and were higher than the rest of the ground. What Is Burning Man? > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. We sat in the main stand the week before, but we had decided to move on that day," he says. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. We, and the world, need Burning Man and Black Rock City more than ever. On 11 May 1985 a blaze ripped through Bradford City stadium's wooden structure in minutes as the club played Lincoln City in an end of season match. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. Warning: Some readers may find parts of this content distressing. "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. I don't know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding. 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. 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. It was clear from what the Chief Fire Officer for West Yorkshire, Mr Graham Karran, said yesterday that the ground was far from safe. "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. "I looked up and saw the flames. The stand itself was engulfed in seconds, almost as if petrol had been ignited throughout the block. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. He is quoted as saying: "I don't believe the statement of retired Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer at all. Club coach Terry Yorath incurred minor injuries while taking part in the rescue. It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years. 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. There were many cases of heroism, with more than 50 people later receiving police awards or commendations for bravery. Guided by the values expressed by the 10 Principles, Burning Man is a global ecosystem of artists, makers, and community organizers who co-create art, events, and local initiatives around the world. The stand slopes downwards from the South Parade. Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. It's a nice little business and it's something positive that came out of a tragedy. 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. "It is unbelievable how quickly the fire took hold. 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. The local council was deemed to be one third responsible. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". Grenfell among the UK's worst fire and tower tragedies Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. 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. Hundreds more telephoned the police to try to trace relatives. A few minutes later, he felt a thump on his back from his father, who told him to run. Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. 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. Martin Fletcher was talking to BBC Look North. The team was presented with the Division Three championship trophy - their first trophy in 56 years - in front of 11,000 jubilant fans before the start of their match against Lincoln City. Fifty-six people died. The Most Tragic Nightclub Fires In History - Grunge.com BurningMan.NYC will announce the dates and process for the 2023 grant cycle on this site & all BurningMan.NYC social channels in early Spring. 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 . Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. I had no idea. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. While Valley Parade was re-developed, Bradford City played games at various neighbouring grounds: Elland Road, Leeds; Leeds Road, Huddersfield; and Odsal Stadium, Bradford. It occurred during a league match in front of record numbers of spectators, on Saturday, 11 May 1985, killing 56 and injuring at least 265.
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