What Is Burning Man? "[23], On the 25th anniversary of the fire, the University of Bradford established the United Kingdom's largest academic research centre in skin sciences as an extension to its plastic surgery and burns research unit.[24]. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. Following the hearing in 1986, a test case was brought against the club by David Britton, a police sergeant serving on the day, and by Susan Fletcher, who lost her husband John, 11-year-old son Andrew, John's brother Peter and his father Edmond in the fire. "It is the little things that show how much people are still involved the fire still has a big impact on people. The 1985 Bradford City Stadium fire remembered - IFSEC Global People ran onto the pitch with their clothes on fire while others were trapped at the back of the stand where they had gone to try to escape through the turnstiles. [6] 1908 - Parker Building, New York City, January 10. 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 Edited by BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko. "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. "[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. Criticising Bradford City during the case, Mr. Michael Ogden QC, highlighted that the Club 'gave no or very little thought to fire precautions', despite repeated warnings. A minute later he saw a small plume of smoke so he poured his coffee on it and so did his son. Mr Antony Burrows said: 'One man was stood near me with his hair on fire. There were no extinguishers in the stand's passageway for fear of vandalism, and one spectator ran to the clubhouse to find one but was overcome by smoke and impeded by others trying to escape. The man in charge of investigating the fire, Detective Superintendent Kevin Cooper was at the game. 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. (2015), 2003 Football League Third Division play-off final, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradford_City_stadium_fire&oldid=1141323458, Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2021, Articles needing additional references from May 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from December 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Fan attempted to extinguish a lit cigarette, it slipped through floorboards and fell on rubbish, igniting it. The scene in there was one of silence and shock. Since then, it has been further re-developed and, today, Valley Parade is a modern 25,136 all-seater stadium, which is virtually unrecognisable from how it was at the time of the disaster, save for the original clubhouse that still stands beside the main stand, and the flank support wall that runs down the Hollywell Ash Lane at the "Bradford End". I saw one man lying on the ground, burning from head to foot. Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985 IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. Last edited: May 11, 2021 May 11, 2019 #2 JohnnyKills Full Member Joined Jan 8, 2016 Messages 6,902 Yeah footage is horrendous isn't it. One family was in tears, the mother shaking. 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. I've never seen anything like it. [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. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. 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. 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. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). 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". Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out. Martin Fletcher, whose brother, father, grandfather and uncle all died in the fire: "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. The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises. Since 1903, when the club was formed, Bradford City Association Football Club had played their home games at the ground. [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. Bradford, playing into a strong wind, were struggling to break down a Lincoln side already safe from relegation. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. It was unprecedented.". England won the re-match 64. Owing to windy conditions, less than four minutes later the entire wooden stand was engulfed in smoke and fire. "A lot of investigative work had been done by the police when I got there. Bradford City stadium fire. A football match in Bradford UK ends "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 stadium fire: Police identify man who 'dropped the The Most Tragic Nightclub Fires In History - Grunge.com Grenfell among the UK's worst fire and tower tragedies In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. [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. It is impossible so far to be accurate about the precise cause of the fire, with grossly conflicting reports from witnesses. Popplewell's report was nowhere close to the quality of Lord Justice Taylor's report after Hillsborough, and since reading it as an adult I have always been very disappointed in it and considered it a poor piece of work. Today, locals continue to raise money for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit in memory of the victims of the fire. Loading. 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. Keep an eye out as you ride your bike through the city you will see a new solar-powered Man, fewer gas and . Fifty-six people died. "If we were fed a lie about it being an accident, then we will be educated. One man in tears said: 'He looked as if he was just going for a stroll. Samuel Firth, a founder of the supporters' club, was the oldest victim at 86; four 11-year-old boys were the youngest. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." [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. "That was the moment that I realised not everybody was going to get out. A Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund raised 3.5m for the victims and their families. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. 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. We had not been told anything.". [10] The call was timed at 3:43pm. All existing grandstands deemed fire risks were faced with immediate closure. 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]. [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 was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. It was to be our day,' he said. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. 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. [16] Messages of condolence were also received from Helmut Kohl, Chedli Klibi and Felipe Gonzlez. [48] Profits from the play's run at The Edinburgh Fringe were donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. Saturday began for the fans in a carnival atmosphere at Bradford 's Valley Parade ground a short walk from the city centre. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48hours of the disaster, eventually raised over 3.5million (11.3million today). Bradford City stadium fire: Remembering the 56 who died at Valley - IBT Bradford City stadium fire disaster remembered - BBC Sport "That was the legacy of the tragedy. I don't know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from the inaccuracies in this report [documentary] are dumbfounding. 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. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. Other parents whose children had not arrived home on Saturday called at the police station or sat in cars outside, waiting for news. The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. However, as there was no real precedent, most Bradfordians accepted that the fire was a terrible piece of misfortune. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. More than 250 others were injured in one of the. "Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. The game was irrelevant. Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. [11], The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. Bradford fire 11.5.1985.mpg - video Dailymotion 2022 DECOMPRESSION WAS DREAMY . 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 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. Radiated heat from the burning roof of the stand set fire to the clothing of fans trapped underneath. One retired mill worker made his way to the pitch, but was walking about on fire from head to foot. Thirty years on, the majority of survivors still find it too difficult to talk about what happened at the Valley Parade on 11 May 1985. 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. 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. 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 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. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. "The fire still has a big impact on people," Parker says. Christmas Day is supposed to be happy and pleasant, a time to gather with loved ones for a chill and relaxing celebration. By the time the fire brigade arrived they were faced with huge flames and dense smoke. 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'. 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. She was an. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. She was hysterical and trying to find her three children. "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. 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'. Exactly 79 years to the day after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, another tragic fire occurred in New York City. 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. [10][16] Geoffrey Mitchell said: "There was panic as fans stampeded to an exit which was padlocked. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. Those who rescued people were themselves burned in the process. 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 fire happened during a football match. 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". Many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. 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. 1.7M subscribers in the CatastrophicFailure community. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. 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. "Me and my dad eventually got out safely but it was a bit of a struggle at one point because the walls getting down to the pitch level were quite high I didn't get a growth spurt until I was 16 or 17.". At the final home match against Barnsley at the end of April, Bradford City fans collected more than 8,000 in a bucket collection. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. As he received the injured at Bradford Royal Infirmary he was able to call upon 10% of the UK's population of plastic surgeons. It transpired that the wooden stand had already been condemned and was set to be demolished just two days after the tragedy. Sir Oliver Popplewell, the High Court judge who led the Valley Parade inquiry in 1985: "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. "[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. I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. Many who had walked out of the fire stood on the pitch looking back in horror as the flames destroyed the stand. Martin Fletcher was talking to BBC Look North. A new book, written by Valley Parade survivor Martin Fletcher, claims then-Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham had previously netted millions of pounds from insurance payouts after at least eight previous fires at businesses he was associated with. 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. [22], Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. 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. "I want the truth to be out, the myths to be broken, so that I can get on with my life rather than knowing this information and having to live with this information. [7] As it was the first piece of league silverware that the club had captured since they won the Division Three (North) title 56years earlier, 11,076supporters were in the ground. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. Called 'The 56' the play dramatises actual accounts of the Bradford City Fire with the purpose of the play showing how in times of adversity, the Football Club and the local community came together. 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. Following his own 15 year investigation Into the fire, which killed four of his family members while he escaped, former tax accountant Martin Fletcher released 56: The Story of the Bradford Fire (2015). Once we went out it was mayhem, manic, chaotic. You could hardly breathe. "I feel such information should be made public and people should look at those facts, then make their mind up on those facts. 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 . [6], The 198485 season had been one of Bradford City's most successful seasons, ending with City clinching the championship title courtesy of a 20 victory against Bolton Wanderers in the penultimate game of the season. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. And all you could smell was burning.". 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. Of the 56 people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. Bradford fan Matthew Wildman, who was aged 17 and using crutches because of rheumatoid arthritis: "When I got to one of the final walls, there was an eight-foot drop at the other side, concrete at the bottom. "[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. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. 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. 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. 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. His son Christopher normally watches from the stand but on Saturday he joined other fans elsewhere. Bradford City stadium fire | Football Wiki | Fandom 1909 - Flores Theater fire, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on February 15, killed 250. "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. [11], The disaster also had a long-lasting effect on the fans. 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.
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