"I was supposed to meet my father at my grandfather's house, but I was a bit late so I went straight to the game so I didn't miss the festivities.". Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. "It made me realise life is too short." 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. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. [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. Bits of my arms, bits of my legs, part of my face, part of my scalp. Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. Website by, Bradford City FC stadium fire | 11th May 1985, Fundraising for firefighters and their families. It seemed to put it out. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. [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. "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. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium 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. [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. [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. [10][16] More than 265 supporters were injured. 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]. "I was operated on every other day because I had so many burns and so many areas to work on. It was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling,[21] which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. We were sat in our football kit, we didn't know what to do. You could hardly breathe. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." '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.'. 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. Below the seats were rows of litter which had piled up throughout the season, said witnesses. Sign up and stay up to date with our daily newsletter. Interviews conducted by BBC Radio Leeds' Tim Daley. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. The mood before the match on the 11 May 1985 against Lincoln City was one of jubilation. 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. Some people seem to have run back up the slope, thinking that they could get back through the turnstiles, and were burned alive. One woman was seen running around the ground with no skin on her arms and face. Some of those who died were still sitting upright in their seats, covered by remnants of tarpaulin that had fallen from the roof. At Valley Parade there are now two memorials. However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. I asked the director to get the camera to go a little closer. 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. ", IBT UK Morning Brief - Let the best of International News come to you. "I looked up and saw the flames. For the 30th anniversary of the fire a new version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded at Voltage Studios in Bradford. People were wandering around outside the ground in disbelief, reminiscent of an air disaster, at what had happened the day before. "The scene when I arrived was horrendous. Pendleton: "One of my most haunting images was being on the bus home after dark and going past Valley Parade. 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. The speed at which fire engulfs the entire stand is insane. 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. Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices "We couldn't help because there were so many people streaming towards us, to our side of the pitch, to get away from the heat. I rolled over on my head, jumped up and ran off.". Pendleton: "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. ", On 26 January 2016, the IPCC declined calls for an investigation and published its full response online. More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. The firemen who arrived there were met by a wall of flame and dense black smoke. ', Sports reporters covering the game also spoke of the disaster. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Revealed: former Bradford chairman linked to at least eight fires before Valley Parade disaster, Martin Fletcher: Maybe the reason I am here is to finally reveal the truth, TheStory of the Bradford Fire: could any man really be as unlucky as Stafford Heginbotham?. 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. The blaze quickly engulfed the stand as Bradford played Lincoln City and claimed the lives of 59 people on May 11, 1985. It is a simple account laid out for all to see. It transpired that the wooden stand had already been condemned and was set to be demolished just two days after the tragedy. Supporters either ran upwards to the back of the stand or downwards to the pitch to escape. "I got stuck against the wall with the weight of people behind me trying to get over. It wasn't until later on when assistant manager Terry Yorath came in and said: 'It's not good.'". [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. 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. 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. More than 250 others were injured in one of the. 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 fire just spread along the length of the stand in seconds. Many who had walked out of the fire stood on the pitch looking back in horror as the flames destroyed the stand. One man in tears said: 'He looked as if he was just going for a stroll. "We wouldn't normally have covered that game - no question about it. [3] It included a main stand which seated 5,300fans, and had room for a further 7,000 standing spectators in the paddock in front. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. Fifty-six people died. [47] Scriptwriters of the play spent hours with the survivors and victims families. It was nearly double the season's average of 6,610 and included 3,000fans in the ground's main stand. I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000spectators. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." Representatives from the fire brigade were due to go to the club tomorrow to inspect it and see whether regulations were being observed. "All I could see was eerie white lights that the fire brigade had set up and the smoke still in the sky. 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. I ran to the stand and tried to help people escape. So I decided to give it that next push. Warnings had been issued over the ground's antiquated wooden structure, which had been condemned and was due to be pulled down and replaced with steel and concrete. Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst . 'The smoke was very, very dense. "I remember not being able to watch it, but we couldn't get out. His face was burned and his car, which he had parked outside the ground, was destroyed. The fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk. People smothered him to extinguish the flames, but he later died of his injuries in hospital. 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." 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. 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. "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. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. We had to run up the stairs, through the office doors and out on to the street. 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 . 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.