burning man bradford city stadium fire
When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. [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. 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. They were immediately promoted back to the Football League in 1988, and survived for 23 years before being relegated again in 2011. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." 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. [5] However, he also warned the club of a build-up of litter beneath the stand because of a gap between the seats. "We couldn't run back down the tunnel. He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. Website by, Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985, Fundraising for firefighters and their families. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. All that was left of. Football architect Archibald Leitch was commissioned to carry out the work. 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. 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. Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. 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 ran to the stand and tried to help people escape. His most recent painting is a powerful image; two fans in Bradford and Lincoln City kits, surrounded by 54 other figures. 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." [10][16] Geoffrey Mitchell said: "There was panic as fans stampeded to an exit which was padlocked. Bradford City had just won the Third Division Championship and a record number of spectators over 11,000 had turned out to see the club presented with its first piece of league silverware in 56 years. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. Disaster struck at 3.43 pm. We, and the world, need Burning Man and Black Rock City more than ever. "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. ", "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 4-alarm fire started in a one-story lumber storage building and spread to an adjacent building . "I parked my van outside because I started making enough money painting as I was in construction. It was an awful thing to watch.". Loading. 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. He started to walk home, unsure of what had happened to his father. 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]. It was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling,[21] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. "[37], Fletcher subsequently published a book in 2015, Fifty-Six: The Story of the Bradford Fire which revealed a history of fires at businesses owned by the Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham. [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. [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. A fire at a third division match between Bradford City and Lincoln City killed 56, including 11 children, and injured hundreds more. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. One elderly man started to walk across the pitch with his clothes and face ablaze. The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. 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. 'The fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. 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 smoke was choking. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. 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. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. [4], Although there had been some changes to other parts of the ground, the main stand remained unaltered by 1985. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. It spelt out 'thank you fans'. But I've never spoken to anyone who thought the fire wasn't anything other than a tragic accident. [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. 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. It was later established that the blaze was caused by a fan who went to put his cigarette out but dropped it between the floorboards onto a pile of rubbish that had been building up below. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. 'This was a dreadful afternoon. Fletcher has been the only survivor to publicly challenge the inquiry's findings. ', Sports reporters covering the game also spoke of the disaster. 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. 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. Artist Paul Town, who now lives in Baildon, was 15 at the time of the fire. This included the banning of new wooden grandstands at all sports venues in the UK. When cross examined by QC Robert Smith, then Chairman Stafford Heginbotham said he knew about the fire risk at the ground. 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. Some of those who died were still sitting upright in their seats, covered by remnants of tarpaulin that had fallen from the roof. At the final home match against Barnsley at the end of April, Bradford City fans collected more than 8,000 in a bucket collection. I've never seen anything like it. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. It was later established that the blaze was caused by a fan who went to put his cigarette out but dropped it between the floorboards onto a . [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. More than 3,500 people were crammed into the main stand area and this prevented people from moving away from the blaze quickly. 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. You may notice some big changes in Black Rock City this year. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. One family was in tears, the mother shaking. 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. The scene in there was one of silence and shock. 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 . 1985 disaster in Valley Parade Stadium, Bradford, England. 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 fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk. The fundraising events included a reunion of the 1966 World Cup Final Starting XI that began with the original starting teams of both England and West Germany, and was held at Leeds United's stadium, Elland Road, in July 1985 to raise funds for the Appeal fund. 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. But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. All Rights Reserved. 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". The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. 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. "That was the legacy of the tragedy. 2022 DECOMPRESSION WAS DREAMY . The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as the Man, that occurs on the penultimate night of Burning Man, which is the Saturday evening before Labor Day. The government inquiry into the disaster concluded the fire spread "faster than a man could run". [17], One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about nine inches (230mm) below the floor boards. 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. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. It was a gruesome sight to see bodies still sitting upright in their seats, covered in tarpaulin. 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. It was sort of the good thing to come out of the nightmare," says Simon Parker, a football reporter for the Telegraph and Argus. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". From 50 to 60 yards away, it was burning our faces it was unbearable. I rolled over on my head, jumped up and ran off.". The only fire extinguishers in the ground were in the clubroom, which is also in 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. The man we see at 7:50 walking out onto the pitch on fire was a retired mill worker. Pendleton: "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. "Many people still don't want to talk about the disaster. And all you could smell was burning.". Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. The sling is now used internationally in the treatment of burns. 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. [56], On 17 April 2015, retired Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer, in a report by the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, said the police were aware of an Australian man who admitted to starting the fire. The fire at a Brooklyn lumber storage building sent plumes of smoke over Williamsburg on Tuesday. Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices The scene in there was one of silence and shock. 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. It transpired that the wooden stand had already been condemned and was set to be demolished just two days after the tragedy. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. The entrances to the stand were all at the rear and were higher than the rest of the ground. After the fire, Bradford City also announced they would thereafter play with a black trim on their shirt sleeves as a permanent memorial to those who had died. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. Police removed the last body from the ground at 4 am yesterday, working under arc lights. [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. Read about our approach to external linking. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. Copyright 2023 IBTimes UK. Those who escaped walked to a nearby pub to use the phone to ring home, while others arrived in a daze outside the police headquarters to try and trace relatives. Just look at how many people were standing around just 50-60 meters away from the blazing inferno. Bits of my arms, bits of my legs, part of my face, part of my scalp. Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. Stadium disasters have blighted the world of sport throughout modern history. 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. 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 fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. "Since then I have thought of everything we could have done, but we didn't have the presence of mind to run across the pitch and tell people to get out. It was nearly double the season's average of 6,610 and included 3,000fans in the ground's main stand. Eight fires in the 18 years before the Bradford City fire were identified, many catastrophic and leading to large insurance payouts. The Documentary highlighted the 'poison pen letters' and graffiti targeted at the then club chairman Stafford Heginbotham over accusations that he was in some way personally responsible for the deaths of the 56 people who died at the fire.[54]. [46], In 2014, the theatre company Funny You Should Ask (FYSA) premiered their heartfelt tribute to the 56 people who died at the fire. 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'. 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. [16] Messages of condolence were also received from Helmut Kohl, Chedli Klibi and Felipe Gonzlez. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. [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. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." 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. I saw a group of people around the smoke laughing. "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. 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. 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. The fire brigade arrived at the ground four minutes after they were initially alerted. Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. A Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund raised 3.5m for the victims and their families. 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. 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. Of the 56 people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. "It is unbelievable how quickly the fire took hold. Other parents whose children had not arrived home on Saturday called at the police station or sat in cars outside, waiting for news. A few minutes later, he felt a thump on his back from his father, who told him to run. 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. "When I got to one of the final walls, there was an eight-foot drop at the other side, concrete at the bottom. We couldn't breathe. It's a nice little business and it's something positive that came out of a tragedy. Then flames licked the underside of the seats, which were a combination of wood and plastic. The firemen who arrived there were met by a wall of flame and dense black smoke. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. 'The smoke was very, very dense. 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. 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. "We stayed in the pub for hours. 'They did not have a chance. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. England won the re-match 64. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. His son Christopher normally watches from the stand but on Saturday he joined other fans elsewhere. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. Two or three burly men put their weight against it and smashed the gate open. 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. The stand slopes downwards from the South Parade. He agreed that the inquiry into Bradford, led by the judge Oliver Popplewell, was inadequate and that there are many unanswered questions. 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. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off. It's terrifying how quickly fire spreads in the wrong circumstances. Ironically, off-duty firemen were at the ground selling raffle tickets for a charity football match which should have been held yesterday. [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. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". The match, Bradford against Lincoln, was to have been a joyous climax to the club winning the Third Division championship and being promoted to the Second Division. Christmas Day is supposed to be happy and pleasant, a time to gather with loved ones for a chill and relaxing celebration. The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises. 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'. We had to run up the stairs, through the office doors and out on to the street. 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. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. More than 250 others were injured in one of the. "A disaster is not black and white - it is a mass of factors.". The smoke was choking. He was completely on fire and it looked as though he simply did not know what had happened to him.'. A minute later he saw a small plume of smoke so he poured his coffee on it and so did his son. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. [32] Speaking at the close of the case, the Judge said "They (the club) were at fault, no one in authority seemed to have appreciated the fire hazard. Eighty names were unaccounted for and there were no positive indications about the cause of the fire. Keep an eye out as you ride your bike through the city you will see a new solar-powered Man, fewer gas and . The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. It is impossible so far to be accurate about the precise cause of the fire, with grossly conflicting reports from witnesses. [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. Watch Missed Warnings on BBC One in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at 22:45 BST on Tuesday, 12 May. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". 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. [2] The main stand was described as a "mammoth structure", but was unusual for its time because of its place on the side of a hill. 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'. "I saw people die in the stand - but it was only until then that I realised the scale of it.". More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years. One woman was seen running around the ground with no skin on her arms and face. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). "The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and told us to get back to the dressing room.". I don't see that. Steel was to be installed in the roof,[8] and the wooden terracing was to be replaced with concrete. [10] One eyewitness, Geoffrey Mitchell, told the BBC: "It spread like a flash.