burning man bradford city stadium fire

People smothered him to extinguish the flames, but he later died of his injuries in hospital. > Contacts> Join us> Circulars> Training courses> Sign up to Rollcall. The chairman of the football club, Mr Stafford Heginbotham, was near to tears as he explained what had happened. An ancient wooden spectator stand and a dropped cigarette - the ingredients for one of Britain's deadliest soccer tragedies. The fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk. 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. Two or three burly men put their weight against it and smashed the gate open. We sat in the main stand the week before, but we had decided to move on that day," he says. People pushed him to the ground and tried to smother the flames. 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. Most Bradfordians have accepted the fire was a terrible misfortune. "For the first minute people were laughing and joking, it wasn't anything serious. 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. "But the feeling here is that it is hard to believe that someone would purposefully start a fire. A minute later he saw a small plume of smoke so he poured his coffee on it and so did his son. [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. 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 . [51] Another book; 56: The Story of the Bradford Fire (2015) was written by Martin Fletcher to discuss how the disaster was caused, and follows his loss of his father, brother, uncle and grandfather. [10][11], Bradford's Telegraph & Argus newspaper published a souvenir issue for 11 May, entitled, "Spit and Polish for the Parade Ground". Videos, gifs, or aftermath photos of machinery, structures, or devices 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. At the time, however, Harrison says, Bradford just wanted to move on. [8][9] In the crowd were local dignitaries and guests from three of Bradford's twin townsVerviers in Belgium, and Mnchengladbach and Hamm in West Germany. 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. [1] When the association football club was formed, the ground was changed very little and had no covered accommodation. 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. Some of those who died were still sitting upright in their seats, covered by remnants of tarpaulin that had fallen from the roof. [2] By 1911, his work was completed. I had to put my jumper over his hair to put the blaze out. And then suddenly, in the space of 120-odd seconds, it really kicked in. 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. Cigarette smoking was also banned at all grounds with wooden stands. "Some of the local residents opened their houses so people could make phone calls. My hands suffered the most because they were exposed the most. After Hillsborough, the Bradford City FC stadium fire was the second worst sporting tragedy in England, leaving 56 dead and at least 265 injured. Smoke was seen coming from the third row in the section but people are apparently used to seeing smoke flares on the Bradford ground. Mr Stefan Krolak, a survivor from Bradford , said he saw the smoke start a few seats away from him 'The smoke seemed suddenly to set on fire. [16] Messages of condolence were also received from Helmut Kohl, Chedli Klibi and Felipe Gonzlez. The Popplewell Inquiry found that a discarded cigarette and an accumulation of litter beneath the stand were to blame. "We stayed in the pub for hours. 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. Within five minutes the whole stand was engulfed in flames. We wanted to record the trophy presentation. [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. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. He was completely on fire and it looked as though he simply did not know what had happened to him.'. 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. More than 250 others were injured in one of the. Other parents whose children had not arrived home on Saturday called at the police station or sat in cars outside, waiting for news. 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. I have never had to deal with such a situation before, and this has put the city on its heels.'. Disaster struck at 3.43 pm. 05/10/15 AT 12:00 PM BST Crowds on the pitch at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium after the stand caught fire Getty Images Fifty-six people were killed, 265 were injured and thousands. People were falling on to each other and screaming. We use necessary cookies to make our site work. 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. 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"Until I arrived home my mum and my brother had no idea whether I was alive or dead. The only fire extinguishers in the ground were in the clubroom, which is also in the main stand. Within 48 hours of the disaster, the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund had been set up and would eventually raise over 3.5m ($5.4m). 48,785 Location Lake Jonathan Creek The footage never gets any less shocking. "It's therapeutic and I've met so many people through doing this." He had to undergo counselling and was unable to go to another game for several years. Your brain tells you, you are not going anywhere. He went on to state: "In 1985 fire investigation in Britain was in its infancy and some would say at that time most fire investigators were not much more than dust-kickers. Bradford City continues to support the burns unit at the University of Bradford as its official charity. The next day work began on clearing the burnt out shell of the stand, and Justice Popplewell released his findings into the disaster. Interviews conducted by BBC Radio Leeds' Tim Daley. That duty was not a duty to the Club but a duty to the spectators and other persons in the stand. I'd seen the film on the Saturday but the bleakness of the stadium burnt out, and the gloom that afflicted everybody, was dreadful. He saw smoke coming from a small area of the stand and thought that someone had let off a flare. Fire disaster at football match (Bradford City stadium fire) - YouTube Sign in to confirm your age 0:00 / 5:23 Sign in to confirm your age This video may be inappropriate for some users.. 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. We accepted it was an accident, nobody wanted to blame the club because it was the club we wanted to support. Christmas Day is supposed to be happy and pleasant, a time to gather with loved ones for a chill and relaxing celebration. 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. Many who had walked out of the fire stood on the pitch looking back in horror as the flames destroyed the stand. 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. Loading. "[16] 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. After its renovation in 1990 they named the home end of their ground the 'Stacey-West Stand', in honour of Bill Stacey and Jim West, the two Lincoln City supporters who were amongst the 56 to die at Bradford. [citation needed] 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. Spread by the wind, the wooden roof, which was covered with tarpaulin and sealed with asphalt and bitumen, caught fire. 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. Now they will begin another inquiry, into the cause of the Bradford fire. 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! "[28], West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council was found to have failed in its duty under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. Lincoln City chairman Bob Dorrian, centre, is joined by Former Imps Players Association chairman Trevor Swinburne, left, and chairman of the Red Imps. More than 200 people were taken to hospital, many with terrible injuries. Helm later described the start of the fire in an interview to the Express newspaper: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, [A] man over from Australia visiting his son got two tickets to the game. Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. "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.". The whole fire seemed to erupt in seconds,' he said. Valley Parade re-opened on 14 December 1986, when Bradford City beat an England XI 21 in a friendly. Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The disaster led to rigid new safety standards in UK stadiums, including the banning of new wooden grandstands.