burning man bradford city stadium fire burning man bradford city stadium fire

Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.[10]. He photographed the blaze from start to finish and the police will use this as evidence when an inquest is held. 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. 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. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. Recommended The untold stories of the 1985 fire 'I have to tell you that the fire was so intense that identifying people is going to be the great problem we have to face.'. Those are the words of David Pendleton, a survivor of the Bradford City fire disaster, which happened 30 years ago. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. 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. [10][11], Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. The wooden roof that burned was scheduled to be replaced by a steel roof later that same . Hendrie: "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. Heginbotham died in 1995, aged 61, and was never prosecuted for the stadium fire, despite the coroner later saying he had given serious consideration to bringing a charge of manslaughter as the club had failed to act on three separate warnings about a potential fire risk. About 3,000 people were in Valley Parade's main stand, escaping by climbing over walls on to the pitch or through the usual exit gates. 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. [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. Surviving supporters, former Bradford players, the sole television commentator at the stadium and the judge who led the government inquiry tell the BBC about that fateful afternoon and its aftermath. Bradford, playing into a strong wind, were struggling to break down a Lincoln side already safe from relegation. 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, there is a lot in this book that troubles me about the science, or lack of it, used in the testing of the investigators' hypothesis as to the source of the ignition. On Saturday 11 May 2002, the 17th anniversary of the disaster, a memorial with the names of those who lost their lives was dedicated at the new entrance to the redeveloped Sunwin stand. The speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. Four police officers, constables David Britton and John Richard Ingham and chief inspectors Charles Frederick Mawson and Terence Michael Slocombe, and two spectators, Richard Gough and David Hustler, were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for their actions. So I threw myself over the wall and luckily someone dived in to catch me before I hit the floor.". Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. The Bradford City disaster took place on Saturday May 11, 1985 when a flash fire occurred at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England. [12] The work was expected to cost 400,000 (1.3million today). "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. 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". Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. 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. "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. The local council was deemed to be one third responsible. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. 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. 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. Then the flames and smoke were all over the place.'. BurningMan.NYC will announce the dates and process for the 2023 grant cycle on this site & all BurningMan.NYC social channels in early Spring. 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. 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. Within a few hours of the blaze starting, it was established that 56 people had been killed, many as a result of smoke inhalation, although some of them had survived until reaching hospital.[11]. Those who rescued people were themselves burned in the process. ", On 26 January 2016, the IPCC declined calls for an investigation and published its full response online. He saw smoke coming from a small area of the stand and thought that someone had let off a flare. 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. But all the people being treated, we formed a family, a bond.". Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 21 in a friendly. "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 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. 56 dead and hundreds more injured. He later died in hospital. Police removed the last body from the ground at 4 am yesterday, working under arc lights. [40] Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and needed crutches to walk because of rheumatoid arthritis. It was nearly double the season's average of 6,610 and included 3,000fans in the ground's main stand. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.[43]. "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. 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. The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises. All existing grandstands deemed fire risks were faced with immediate closure. 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. There is a twin memorial sculpture, unveiled on 11 May 1986, which has the names of the dead inscribed on it. 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. At the time, however, Harrison says, Bradford just wanted to move on. Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . The book also raises concerns about the speed of the inquiry and the fact that it commenced a few weeks after the fire and lasted for only a few days, whereas other inquiries into similar incidents, pre and post the Bradford fire, have taken years to come to fruition and months to be heard. [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. A fire at a third division match between Bradford City and Lincoln City killed 56, including 11 children, and injured hundreds more. But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. [11], The disaster also had a long-lasting effect on the fans. Hundreds more telephoned the police to try to trace relatives. Witnesses of the fire have come to terms with the tragedy in different ways. A few minutes later, he felt a thump on his back from his father, who told him to run. The inquiry had found that the club had been warned that the accumulation of rubbish beneath the stands was a fire risk. "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. He appealed to people to be patient while forensic experts identified bodies. That's when everybody else had the same thought. 'This was a dreadful afternoon. [19] One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. 24 Bradford City A.F.C. People had walked through turnstiles and along a wooden corridor before descending the steps into their seats. After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. Only then do you realise the huge network of people the fire involved. 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. 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. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off. "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. Since 1903, when the club was formed, Bradford City Association Football Club had played their home games at the ground. This included the banning of new wooden grandstands at all sports venues in the UK. "I was in the stand opposite when the fire broke out. Yet many of those with terrible memories of the tragedy also take heart in the compassion born out of the devastation. Sir Oliver Popplewell, the High Court judge who led the Valley Parade inquiry in 1985: "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. 'The smoke was very, very dense. "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. England won the re-match 64. 1908 - Collinwood school fire, in Collinwood, Ohio (soon absorbed by Cleveland ), on March 4, killed 175. 'They did not have a chance. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. Like you, we're already preparing for Black Rock City to rise again. 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. I rolled over on my head, jumped up and ran off.". The 1984-85 season had been one of the most successful in Bradford City's 82-year history. 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. One, now re-situated to that end of the stand where the fire began, is a sculpture donated on the initial re-opening of Valley Parade in December 1986 by Sylvia Graucob, a then Jersey-based former West Yorkshire woman. The blaze quickly engulfed the stand as Bradford played Lincoln City and claimed the lives of 59 people on May 11, 1985. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. 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. Yet in 2015, allegations surfaced which shifted the focus to the club's then chairman, Stafford Heginbotham. 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. 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. "I was in the main stand when the fire happened," he says. "[16] At the front of the stand, men threw children over the wall to help them escape. [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. "If we were fed a lie about it being an accident, then we will be educated. 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. People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. 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'. Earlier this year, Town gave up working in construction to pursue painting full-time through his business Stadium Portraits. Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. The scene in there was one of silence and shock. Smoke was seen coming from the third row in the section but people are apparently used to seeing smoke flares on the Bradford ground. 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. There was some kind of disturbance near the edge of a block of seats in the G section of the main stand. The man in charge of investigating the fire, Detective Superintendent Kevin Cooper was at the game. ", ITV football commentator John Helm, who provided live commentary of the unfolding disaster across the nation: "We wouldn't normally have covered that game - no question about it. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. 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. As a result, Bradford-born captain Peter Jackson was presented with the league trophy before the final game of the season with mid-table Lincoln City at Valley Parade on 11 May 1985. [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. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. His most recent painting is a powerful image; two fans in Bradford and Lincoln City kits, surrounded by 54 other figures. 1.7M subscribers in the CatastrophicFailure community. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. Luckily, his father arrived home shortly after he did, but 30 years on, he still remembers the young woman who served him a Mars Bar and his father a coffee, who never made it out of the stadium. 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. [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. The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48hours of the disaster, eventually raised over 3.5million (11.3million today). Website by, Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985, Fundraising for firefighters and their families. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. 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 . The fire started five minutes before half-time during the match on 11 May between Bradford and Lincoln City. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. Supporters either ran upwards to the back of the stand or downwards to the pitch to escape. Fletcher has been the only survivor to publicly challenge the inquiry's findings. "I feel such information should be made public and people should look at those facts, then make their mind up on those facts. It transpired that the wooden stand had already been condemned and was set to be demolished just two days after the tragedy. Of the 56people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. 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].