is enabled and that cookies are turned on. We went there to win the last game in front of a home crowd. It was the worst fire disaster in the history of British football history. But an investigation for Popplewell into the likely causes, published by the Department of the Environments Fire Research Station (FRS) 30 days after the tragedy and part of the body of evidence relating to the disaster at the National Archive in Kew, tested the likelihood of a match struck by a spectator still being alight when it fell to the floor. My inspection [of your photographs] was curtailed because Dr Woolley was called to give evidence and I had to rush away and brief him on a few additional points which I had found from the photographs. Woolley also tells the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory in a letter: Im still finding great difficulty in obtaining a set of photographs of the fire. The extraordinary part of all this is that this testimony has barely been heard. "Storage of paint implicated but no evidence of storage beneath the stand. Today 28 years ago, a fire broke out on one of the crowd stands during a football match at Bradford's Valley Parade stadium. Retired detective inspector Raymond Falconer said a decision was made at the time not to release the name of the man who may have accidentally started the fire that killed 56 people. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has ruled out an inquiry into potential misconduct by police during the Bradford City stadium fire that killed 56 people. Bradford City Stadium Fire - Working With Crowds "How quickly the fire spread is difficult to convey to people.". Otherwise I would not have been able to get out.". In 1919 the South Park Commission (later reorganized as the Chicago Park District) held a design . BBC ON THIS DAY | 11 | 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire Most of the dead are children or elderly people crushed in the rush to escape the inferno. ", A carelessly discarded cigarette could give rise to a fire risk.". Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. 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. All existing grandstands deemed fire risks were faced with immediate closure. Hendrie: "Us players must have been in the tunnel for seconds - and I mean seconds. Funnily enough I was thinking 'I'm going to miss the second half at this rate'. Collins admitted that the police have not had time or manpower to see everyone who may have something of value to contribute to this investigation which may help to explain material matters. At 3:40 p.m., TV commentator John Helm commented on a small fire in the main grandstand, and less than four minutes later, the entire wooden bleachers and wooden roof canopy of the main grandstand was engulfed in . and called for a fresh investigation into the disaster. 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. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. The team was presented with the. 56 people died with around. A charred copy of the local paper from Monday, 4 November 1968, was among the litter. Edited by BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko. A report by the investigative journalist Paul Foot, published in the Daily Mirror of 31 May 1985, headlined Fire Jinx in Bradford, is cited to May. Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom (UK). You can still enjoy your subscription until the end of your current billing period. May has said she will consult with other Government departments before responding in due course. 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. Entitled Fire Precautions in Football Stadium a post Bradford analysis, the updated report states: During the early stages of this study of remedial measures, it became clear that features of the Bradford fire required an understanding greater than that presented to the formal inquiry., Even this updated report, three months on, had only been published, the FRS admitted, with a limited study of still photographs taken from various positions and without such other potentially significant information as the evidence of survivors, precise dimensions of the roof etc.. West Yorkshire Fire Brigade, now West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. [online]. be presented with these links. Former Bradford midfielder John Hendrie, who was playing in the match: "We had already won the league, all the hard work had been done. Bradford City Stadium Fire. The effect will be greater.. Talk:Bradford City stadium fire - Wikipedia 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'. You have four weeks notice to submit evidence, Popplewells clerk told the FRS. On Saturday May 11, 1985, the Bradford City Football Club hosted Lincoln City at Valley Parade Stadium in England in the final game of the season. Throwing struck matches up in the air and seeing whether they extinguished before they landed is a metaphor for a unit doing the best it could to come up with something. "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. A Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Governors Council Fire Prevention and Control. Bradford City stadium fire | Football Wiki | Fandom 35 years since Bradford tragedy - Sports Grounds Safety Authority She told the schoolchildren how she had travelled widely in the years after her husband and sons had gone, how that helped sustain her, and how they must think to travel and discover the world too. Approximately 15:40 (fire initially noticed). Those who helped are reluctant heroes now. Engineering Council Professional Registration. Above all else, it is a beautifully observed and incredibly detailed memoir of a son's relationship with the father he lost at the age of 12. Five minutes before half-time, the first sign of a firea glowing lightwas noticed as reported by TV commentator John Helm. (PDF) The media, affect, and community in a decade of disasters Attempts to put the fire out with coffee failed. The Bantams were playing Lincoln City at Valley . SC013267 | Scottish Charity Number SC012694. I rolled over on my head, jumped up and ran off.". He told the BBC: "I think the conclusion that this was arson is mistaken. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has been told that Bradford City fans were wrongly held responsible for deaths in the stadium fire on 11 May 1985 which killed 56 people, in an echo of the way that Liverpool supporters were blamed for the Hillsborough disaster four years later. This fire killed 56, many at locked exits or still in their seats. Bradford City Stadium Fire - Saturday 11th May 1985 We were concerned that there might be, because of the rapidity of the fire, a mechanism which was hitherto unknown to us, Dr Woolley told the inquiry, which gave the FRS, based at Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, just four weeks to gather evidence and put Woolley through a mere two hours of questioning. Or as a football commentator for that matter. Main exits at the back of the stands were locked or blocked, and no stewards were present to open them. Someone came in and shouted: 'Get out, get out there's a fire'. Instead it turned into a day of appalling tragedy. My mum said at the time of the Hillsborough Disaster, when it all came home to me, you're angry and the hate is eating you inside out.". The social media comp-onent is to be expected. But they had done their job. Twenty nine years ago on this date, 56 people tragically died when a fire erupted at Bradford City's Valley Parade ground. Even the received wisdom is enough to make you rage against football's breathtaking complacency: the same complacency which would turn the terrace at Hillsborough into a killing ground, four years later. Unknown author. "That made me angry: that people don't know about this.". In a 20-page letter, the lawyers argue that the inquirys lack of intellectual and investigative rigour meant that there was no consideration of what they claim were serial flaws in the police response. "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. Copyright 2023 IBTimes UK. Government (national and/or local) summary of main findings, conclusions, key lessons & recommendations: Unknown author. 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 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 was out shopping in Bradford and he had gone to the match," she says. The fire broke out during a match between Bradford and Lincoln at the Valley Parade stadium on 11 May 1985. "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. Soldier Field, when completed, contained 74,280 permanent bleacher seats made of fir planking. The documents paint a picture of the desperate rush to gather evidence for Popplewell, with one of its staff writing to West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Police in June 1985 pleading for copies of the forces photographs of the Valley Parade disaster. Explore! I remember trying to make sense of what was going on. "I've never seen anything like it. To accept and hide this message click the cross on the right. The letter argues that the West Yorkshire force failed in a duty to inform Sir Oliver Popplewell, the High Court judge who presided over the inquiry, of at least eight fires in premises owned by or connected to the then Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham, who died in 1995. or not relevant. "I got stuck against the wall with the weight of people behind me trying to get over. . "He said he smoked a cigarette, dropped the cigarette onto the floor in front of him, went to put his foot on it, but it had unfortunately dropped through, he said, a knot hole.". ". 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. Bennett's family told the BBC he never revealed to them he dropped the cigarette. "All you could see was black cloud. A number of low-quality photographs depicting smoke coming from beneath the stand proved significant, plus the testimony of a supporter, Leslie Brownlie, visiting from Australia, who felt heat beneath his seat, suspected flames and tried to put them out with his coffee. The local Telegraph & Argus newspaper found an abundance of fans to criticise his work. The local Bradford Telegraph and Argus has found many voices to challenge his testimony, too. But Ms Ibrahim saw her husband on her TV set, on the Valley Parade half way line, helping stretcher some of the injured away to safety. Leigh Day point out that the inquiry was convened so hastily that there were no lawyers representing the families of the victims to cross-examine the testimony of West Yorkshire Police, Bradford City, West Yorkshire County Council which had public safety responsibilities and the Health and Safety Executive. Its report concludes: It would seem quit feasible for a lighted match, dropped through a gap in the flooring of the stand to ignite rubbish beneath. The bodys technical assessments found that the possibility of a match causing the fire would have increased markedly if the head of the match was accidentally broken in the act of striking it. 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. The Valley Parade stadium, long-established home to Bradford City Football Club, had been noted for its antiquated design and facilities, including the wooden roof of the main stand. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire, Radio commentator witnesses the fire break out. 1985: Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire. Wealso use analytics cookies that don't track usersto help us improve it. Only now, in 56: The Story of the Bradford Fire (Bloomsbury, 16.99) has he completed a 15-year quest to challenge history's interpretation of why the fire broke out. Main findings, key lessons & areas for learning: Further information hoping to be identified and still to be located. He chaired the inquiry into the Bradford City stadium fire, presided over the libel case brought by Jonathan Aitken MP against The Guardian newspaper which eventually led to Aitken's imprisonment for perjury, and was widely reported for asking "What is Linford's lunchbox?" Bradford City stadium fire - Wikipedia 'Bradford City stadium' is known as 'Valley Parade'. We use Wildman: "I was burnt from top to bottom, on and off. "The scene became progressively horrendous, grotesque, and I was having to describe things you couldn't possibly imagine.". "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. 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. Bits of my arms, bits of my legs, part of my face, part of my scalp. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The play reflects that it had been "the Yorkshire way" not to make a fuss, to bear a loss and move on. Please verify that JavaScript
On Saturday May 11, 1985, the Bradford City Football Club hosted Lincoln City at Valley Parade Stadium in England in the final game of the season. It's certainly how Mumtaz Ibrahim feels about the day when, as a newly married 20-year-old, she thought her young husband had been killed in the flames. A letter from lawyers Leigh Day to May, seen by The Independent, argues that police accused supporters of being slow to respond to their pleas to evacuate the main stand where the fire began, when photographic evidence demonstrates that the affected sections of it were largely empty by the time officers began their evacuation on to the pitch. T: +44 (0)1789 261 463 F: +44 (0)1789 296 426 E: info@ife.org.uk, The Institution of Fire Engineers, IFE House, 64-66 Cygnet Court, Timothy's Bridge Road, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 9NW, United Kingdom, Registered in Scotland No. Woolley's notes again: "Many referred to the smell of burning plastics." Your browser is unable to render the navigation correctly. By Tom Jenson Fire Code Specialist. If a match was the cause there is also the unanswered question of how tens of thousands could have been thrown to the floor since the stadium was opened in 1908 never causing a fire before.