Bradford City Fire

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. The stadium was known for its antiquated design and facilities, which included the wooden roof of the main stand. Previous warnings had also been given about a major build-up of litter in the cavity below the seats in the stand. The stand had been officially condemned and was due to be replaced with a steel structure after the season ended.

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. At 3.40 p.m., 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. 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. Many were burnt to death at the turnstiles gates, which had also been locked after the match had begun. There were many cases of heroism, with more than fifty people later receiving police awards or commendations for bravery.

The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands. It was also a catalyst for the substantial redevelopment and modernisation of many British football grounds within the following thirty years. Bradford City continues to support the burns unit at the University of Bradford as its official charity.

Background

Valley Parade in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was built in 1886 and was initially the home ground of Manningham Rugby Football Club. Since 1903, when the club was formed, Bradford City Association Football Club had played their home games at the ground. The playing area and stands were very basic but the ground had enough room for 18,000 spectators. When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. However, when Bradford City won promotion to the highest level of English football, Division One, in 1908, club officials sanctioned an upgrade programme. Football architect Archibald Leitch was commissioned to carry out the work. By 1911, his work was completed. It included a main stand which seated 5,300 fans, and had room for a further 7,000 standing spectators in the paddock in front. 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. The entrances to the stand were all at the rear and were higher than the rest of the ground.

Although there had been some changes to other parts of the ground, the main stand remained unaltered by 1985. Football ground writer Simon Inglis had described the view from the stand as "like watching football from the cockpit of a Sopwith Camel" because of its antiquated supports and struts. However, he also warned the club of a build-up of litter beneath the stand because of a gap between the seats. 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. One letter from the council said the problems "should be rectified as soon as possible"; a second said: "A carelessly discarded cigarette could give rise to a fire risk." In March 1985 the club's plans became more apparent when it took delivery of steel for a new roof.

The 1984–85 season had been one of Bradford City's most successful seasons, ending with City clinching the championship title courtesy of a 2–0 victory against Bolton Wanderers in the penultimate game of the season. 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. As it was the first piece of league silverware that the club had captured since they won the Division Three (North) title 56 years earlier, 11,076 supporters were in the ground. It was nearly double the season's average of 6,610 and included 3,000 fans in the ground's main stand. In the crowd were local dignitaries and guests from three of Bradford's twin towns—Verviers in Belgium, and Mönchengladbach and Hamm in West Germany.

Bradford's ''Telegraph & Argus'' newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". 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". Steel was to be installed in the roof, and the wooden terracing was to be replaced with concrete. The work was expected to cost £400,000 (£ million today).

The teams

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.

Fire

The match kicked off at 3:04 pm and after forty minutes of the first half, the score remained 0–0, in what was described as a drab affair with neither team threatening to score.

At 3:44 pm, five minutes before half-time, the first sign of a firea glowing lightwas noticed three rows from the back of block G, as reported by television commentator John Helm. Helm later described the start of the fire in an interview to the ''Express'' newspaper:

One witness saw paper or debris on fire, about below the floor boards. The stand seats did not have risers; this had allowed a large accumulation of rubbish and paper waste in the cavity space under the stand, which had not been cleared for many months. Spectators later spoke of initially feeling their feet becoming warmer; one of them ran to the back of the stand for a fire extinguisher but found none. A police officer shouted to a colleague for an extinguisher, but his call was misheard and instead the fire brigade were radioed. The call was timed at 3:43 pm.

The fire escalated very rapidly, and flames became visible; police started to evacuate the stand. As the blaze spread, the wooden stands and roofcovered with layers of highly flammable bituminous roofing feltquickly went ablaze. Burning timbers and molten materials fell from the roof onto the crowd and seating below, and dense black smoke enveloped a passageway behind the stand, where many spectators were trying to escape. One eyewitness, Geoffrey Mitchell, told the BBC: "It spread like a flash. I've never seen anything like it. The smoke was choking. You could hardly breathe." As spectators began to cascade over the wall separating the stand from the pitch, the linesman on that side of the pitch informed referee Norman Glover, who stopped the game with three minutes remaining before half-time. It took less than four minutes for the entire stand to be engulfed in flames.

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. Supporters either ran upwards to the back of the stand or downwards to the pitch to escape. 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. 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.

Most of the exits at the back were locked or shut and there were no stewards present to open them, but seven were forced open or found open. Three men smashed down one door and at least one exit was opened by people outside, which again helped prevent further deaths. Geoffrey Mitchell said: "There was panic as fans stampeded to an exit which was padlocked. Two or three burly men put their weight against it and smashed the gate open. Otherwise, I would not have been able to get out." At the front of the stand, men threw children over the wall to help them escape. Most of those who escaped onto the pitch were saved.

People who had escaped the fire then tried to assist their fellow supporters. Police officers also assisted in the rescue attempts. 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 had to turn around. Bradford City's coach Terry Yorath, whose family was in the stand, ran onto the pitch to help evacuate people. Another player went into the office space to ensure there was nobody there. One fan put his jumper over a fellow supporter's head to extinguish flames. 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.

The fire brigade arrived at the ground four minutes after they were initially alerted. However, the fire had consumed the stand entirely by that point and they were faced with huge flames and very dense smoke. As many supporters still required rescue from the stand, they were unable to immediately start fighting the source of the fire.

The fire destroyed the main stand completely and left only burned seats, lamps and metal fences remaining. Some of those who died were still sitting upright in their seats, covered by remnants of tarpaulin that had fallen from the roof. Police worked until 4 am the next morning, under lighting, to remove all the bodies. 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.

Television broadcast

The match was recorded by Yorkshire Television for their regional edition of the ITV Sunday afternoon football show ''The Big Match''. Uncensored coverage of the fire was transmitted minutes after the event on '' World of Sport'' and the BBC's ''Grandstand'' after the video cassette was physically driven to Yorkshire Television.

Victims and injured

Of the 56 people who died in the fire, 54 were Bradford supporters and two supported Lincoln. 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. Some had been crushed as they tried to crawl under turnstiles to escape. One retired mill worker made his way to the pitch, but was walking about on fire from head to foot. People smothered him to extinguish the flames, but he later died of his injuries in hospital. Half of those who died were either aged under 20 or over 70, and the oldest victim was the club's former chairman, Sam Firth, aged 86. More than 265 supporters were injured.

The fire was described as the worst fire disaster in the history of British football, and the worst football related disaster since 66 spectators died at Ibrox in 1971.

Treatment of casualties and Burns Research Unit

The Bradford Burns Unit was set up by Professor David Sharpe after he received many of the victims following the fire. 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 was during this treatment that Sharpe began to develop the Bradford Sling, which applies even pressure across sensitive areas. The sling is now used internationally in the treatment of burns.

Immediately after the fire, Sharpe planned and treated the injuries of over 200 individuals, with many experimental treatments being used. Mathew Wildman, aged 17 at the time of the fire, commented that "I must have had five different experiments carried out on me with all sorts of new techniques for skin grafts and I had potions injected into me that helped my face repair naturally over time."

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.

Inquiry, inquest and legal action

Popplewell Inquiry

The inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Sir Oliver Popplewell and known as the Popplewell Inquiry, led to the introduction of new legislation to improve safety at the UK's football grounds. Among the main outcomes of the inquiry were the banning of new wooden grandstands at all UK sports grounds, the immediate closure of other wooden stands deemed unsafe and the banning of smoking in other wooden stands.

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. 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. 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. Most of the fans who took this escape route were killed or seriously injured. Fans in the next stand (the "Bradford End") pulled down the fence separating them from the pitch.

The Popplewell Inquiry found that the club had been warned about the fire risk that the rubbish accumulating under the stand had posed. The stand had already been condemned, and the demolition teams were due to start work two days later. However, as there was no real precedent, most Bradfordians accepted that the fire was a terrible piece of misfortune. A discarded cigarette and a dilapidated wooden stand, which had survived because the club did not have the money to replace it, and accumulated paper litter, were considered to have conspired to cause the worst disaster in the history of the Football League.

Inquest and legal test case

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. 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. On 23 February 1987, Sir Joseph Cantley found the club two thirds responsible and the county council (which by this time had been abolished) one third responsible.

Explaining his decision, Sir Joseph Cantley stated: "As I have already stated, the primary duty was on the Club and the functions of the County Council were supervisory and its liability is for negligent breach of a common law duty arising out of the way in which they dealt with or ignored their statutory powers. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. 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."

West Yorkshire Metropolitan Borough Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. The Health and Safety Executive who were also part of the legal action were found to be non-liable. 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.

The outcome of the test case resulted in over 154 claims being addressed (110 civilians and 44 police officers) by the injured or bereaved. 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. No one gave it the attention it ought to have received.. .. The fact is that no one person was concerned with the safety of the premises."

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. When cross examined by QC Robert Smith, then Chairman Stafford Heginbotham said he knew about the fire risk at the ground.

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 Mr Heginbotham, Mr Tordoff, the Board of Directors, or any of them, were intentionally and callously indifferent to the safety of spectators using the stand. They were at fault, but the fault was that no-one in authority seems ever to have properly appreciated the real gravity of this fire hazard and consequently no-one gave it the attention it certainly ought to have received."

The total amount of compensation to the 154 claimants was reported to be as high as £20 million, with the payouts covered by insurance taken out by the club. In 1988, the first compensation payments were made to survivors of the fire, with over 40 people receiving up to £40,000 each. 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.

Comments by Martin Fletcher; ''Fifty-Six: The Story of the Bradford Fire''

In 2010, Susan Fletcher's son and survivor of the Bradford City fire (and witness to the Hillsborough disaster), Martin Fletcher, openly criticised the club's hierarchy at the time of the fire and the subsequent investigation. Fletcher said that "The club at the time took no actual responsibility for its actions and nobody has ever really been held accountable for the level of negligence which took place. It was appalling that public money was given to the club while it was still owned by the same shareholders under whose direction the fire had happened. 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."

After controversial comments made by Sir Oliver Popplewell about the Hillsborough Disaster, Fletcher raised further concerns about the events following the fire saying that "I have many unanswered questions still about the fire in which four of my family died, as does my mother. 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."

Fletcher subsequently published a book in 2015, ''Fifty-Six: The Story of the Bradford Fire'' which revealed a history of fires at businesses owned by the Bradford City chairman Stafford Heginbotham. Eight fires in the 18 years before the Bradford City fire were identified, many catastrophic and leading to large insurance payouts.

Reaction

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. Messages of condolence were also received from Helmut Kohl, Chedli Klibi and Felipe González.

The club's chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, said: "It was to be our day". Coach Terry Yorath described the events as "the worst day in my life." Police Superintendent Barry Osborne, divisional commander for the area, said many of his officers cried when they saw how badly people had been burned.

The disaster also had a long-lasting effect on the fans. Christopher Hammond, who was 12 on the day, said on the 20th anniversary of the fire: "As a 12-year-old, it was easy to move on – I didn't realise how serious it was until I looked at the press coverage over the next few days. But looking back and seeing how much it really affected my dad makes me realise what we went through." 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." He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. Matthew Wildman was 17 at the time and needed crutches to walk because of rheumatoid arthritis. He was helped out of the stand by other fans and spent a period of time in hospital. He later said: "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. ..I still have terrible memories of the day, but it is the humanity of those that helped us that I reflect on."

Aftermath

Appeal fund

The Bradford Disaster Appeal fund, set up within 48 hours of the disaster, eventually raised over £3.5 million (£ million today). The fundraising events included a reunion of the 1966 World Cup Final Starting XI that began with the original starting teams of both England and West Germany, and was held at Leeds United's stadium, Elland Road, in July 1985 to raise funds for the Appeal fund. England won the re-match 6–4.

Part of the Appeal funds were raised by a recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone" 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 1 in the UK Singles chart. The money raised from this record was contributed to fund the internationally renowned burns unit that was established in partnership between the University of Bradford and Bradford Royal Infirmary, immediately after the fire, which has also been Bradford City's official charity for well over a decade.

For the 30th anniversary of the fire a new version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" was recorded at Voltage Studios in Bradford. On the recording are Dene Michael (Black Lace), The Chuckle Brothers, Clive Jackson of Dr & The Medics, Owen Paul, Billy Pearce, Billy Shears, Flint Bedrock, Danny Tetley and Rick Wild of The Overlanders. It was the brainchild of Bradford City fan Lloyd Spencer with all profits going to the Bradford Royal Infirmary Burns Unit.

Memorial service and memorials

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. A giant Christian cross, made up of two large charred wooden members that had once been part of the stand, was constructed in front of the middle of the stand and behind the pitchside speaker's platform. Part of the service was also held in Urdu

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