Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out. It has a black marble fascia on which the names and ages of those that died are inscribed in gold, and a black marble platform on which people can leave flowers and mementos. Spreading with almost unbelievable speed, a small fire under a wooden. Wildman: "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. [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. Superintendent Barry Osborne, divisional commander for the football club area, who was injured in the fire said that many policemen cried when they saw how badly people had been burned. 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. Burning Man Countdown | Burning Man Helm: "There was a throw-in in front of the stand where the fire started - something caught my eye. 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. Original television coverage of the fire, as caught by cameras covering the match. 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. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". The courts held the club to be two thirds responsible, finding that it gave "no or very little thought to fire precautions" despite repeated warnings. [29] The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. 'I think that is unlikely,' he said. The fact the inquiry also embraced the investigation into another incident which happened on the same day, a riot in which a young boy died at Birmingham City, makes it seem more frivolous. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. 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. Artist Paul Town, who now lives in Baildon, was 15 at the time of the fire. The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises. The main stand at Bradford was not surrounded by fencing, and therefore most of the spectators in it could escape onto the pitch if they had been penned in then the death toll would inevitably have been in the hundreds if not the thousands. They wouldn't let us because then people would get in the way of fire engines, ambulances and police trying to get in. We were given the trophy before the game in front of the supporters and had to do a lap of honour. Parents and children were laughing and joking with the police as the preliminaries to the game began. 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. Fifty people die in a fire in the grandstand at a soccer stadium in Bradford, England, on May 11, 1985. Hideous images linger after carnage of 'celebration' day Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 21 in a friendly. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. Interviews conducted by BBC Radio Leeds' Tim Daley. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. 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. [10] Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand,[19] ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. 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. I had no idea. As he scaled the brick perimeter wall at the front, his father stayed behind to help others escape. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch. His most recent painting is a powerful image; two fans in Bradford and Lincoln City kits, surrounded by 54 other figures. What Is Burning Man? | Burning Man Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. Bradford City Fire disaster: 36 years on the city's pioneering burns [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. 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'. By this date the appeal fund set up for survivors had paid out more than 4m with further payouts expected as the effects of physical and mental injury were determined. We had to run up the stairs, through the office doors and out on to the street. In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof. Bradford council introduced its emergency plans procedure yesterday to give aid to many families affected by the disaster. "I walked past a public telephone outside the ground and there were queues of people waiting to ring home to say: 'I'm OK'. "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. Come celebrate the beastly realm and our place in it and with it, an even more radically inclusive and sustainable city and global community in 2023: ANIMALIA! BBC News - Bradford fire 'will live with me forever' I saw a group of people around the smoke laughing. "I was dragged on to the pitch and into a line of people, who couldn't do much for themselves and were lying there. Recommended The untold stories of the 1985 fire Many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985 | Fire Brigades Union At Valley Parade there are now two memorials. [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. 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. [49], Parrs Wood Press published Four Minutes to Hell: The Story of the Bradford City Fire (2005) by author Paul Firth;[50] the title refers to the estimated time it took for the stand to be completely ablaze from the first flames being spotted. The flames suddenly appeared and the whole roof took alight,' he said. Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . 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. He was completely on fire and it looked as though he simply did not know what had happened to him.'. But the sheer density of numbers coupled with the thick, choking smoke made people collapse. Like all areas of forensic investigations, it has come on leaps and bounds. "We went out on to the pitch and I could see so many happy faces. [53], In 1986, a year after the disaster, Yorkshire Television aired a documentary presented by John Helm entitled Bradford City A Year of Healing. Some repair work was carried out, but in July 1984 the club was warned again, this time by a county council engineer, because of the club's plans to claim for ground improvements from the Football Trust. I've never seen anything like it. The smoke was choking. Coach Terry Yorath described the events as "the worst day in my life. Wealso use analytics cookies that don't track usersto help us improve it. Fletcher has taken facts and presented them in such a way that it should make it moralistically impossible for this incident not to be looked at again. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. 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. 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. He was asked if precautions would have been adequate had the club been in the Second Division. The Bradford City stadium fire : r/MorbidReality The Man burns on September 02, 2023. The fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk. The next day work began on clearing the burnt out shell of the stand, and Justice Popplewell released his findings into the disaster. Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. "All you could see was black cloud. 'The smoke was very, very dense. Valley Parade during the early 1990s, after it had been redeveloped following the fire. All Rights Reserved. "[16] At the front of the stand, men threw children over the wall to help them escape. Hendrie: "Several minutes before half-time I saw there was a wee bit of bother. "It wasn't covering anything up, it wasn't avoiding the truth of what happened, everyone knows what happened, everyone knows it shouldn't have happened. Today, locals continue to raise money for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit in memory of the victims of the fire. The stand had already been condemned, and the demolition teams were due to start work two days later. It was nearly double the season's average of 6,610 and included 3,000fans in the ground's main stand. One elderly man started to walk across the pitch with his clothes and face ablaze. I had no idea. [38], The tragedy received immense media attention and drew support from around the world, with those offering their sympathy including Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. It was sort of the good thing to come out of the nightmare," says Simon Parker, a football reporter for the Telegraph and Argus. 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. Bradford City Stadium Fire - Saturday 11th May 1985 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. As many supporters still required rescue from the stand, they were unable to immediately start fighting the source of the fire. "[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]. The fire claimed young and old alike, with most fatalities occurring at the rear of the stand where people sought escape only to find turnstiles locked. The Bradford way was keep it to ourselves - it worked collectively that we did that. The chairman of the football club, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, was near to tears as he explained what had happened. Valley Parade in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was built in 1886 and was initially the home ground of Manningham Rugby Football Club. When the game began there was no way out for them, except by going on to the pitch. 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. There were queues of people outside houses, which obviously wouldn't happen nowadays. Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. "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. Of the 56people who died in the fire,[2] 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. Some of the dead were found at the bottom of these steps. 'It is the worst day in my life. This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 13:41. ", Popplewell: "I'm sorry to spoil what is obviously a very good story, but I'm afraid it is nonsense for many reasons.". Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. 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. "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". "[59], Raymond Falconer's reliability had previously been questioned by Daniel Taylor in The Guardian who stated that: "The Bradford Telegraph and Argus described him as a 'top detective'. There was a bit of paper on fire, but it was so small.". [10] The call was timed at 3:43pm. 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. The 1984-85 season had been one of the most successful in Bradford City's 82-year history. 1985 disaster in Valley Parade Stadium, Bradford, England. 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. However, the turnstiles were locked and none of the stadium staff were present to unlock them, leaving no escape through the normal entrances and exits. 1909 - Flores Theater fire, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on February 15, killed 250. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. "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. 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". Bradford City were supposed to be celebrating on 11 May 1985. ", 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. The club's success had swollen the crowd to 10,000 and arguments will rage about fire precautions at the ground. I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. There were no fire extinguishers. Copyright 2023 IBTimes UK. 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 whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. 199 Bradford City Stadium Fire Photos and Premium High Res Pictures Bradford City fire was started by a tourist who dropped a cigarette 56 people dead. The team's coach, Mr Terry Yorath, ran on to the pitch to try to help people away from the stand. 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.
Slovak Embassy London Book Appointment, Articles B