David Challinor

I wonder if anyone has old, complete footage of this terrible tragedy, and has views on it. I have a 30 minute excerpt on VHS from TVam the morning after the game was played hosted by David Frost with a seven minute sequence virtually uncut from Yorkshire TV's amazing coverage that awful day. The sequence I know has been used for fire force training and shows much of the chaos. Amazingly the web has LESS rather than more for once - and outcries from relatives have led to youtube among others removing the terrifying footage. One part I have focusses right into the stand and views spectators, including one unfortunate child being manhandled by his father, in sheer panic. This is not allowed to be shown today. In 1985 it was a different story.
However, I believe the footage, as edited here, is valuable for showing the awful danger of fire.

LiveLeak.com - Bradford City stadium fire

cornershop15

David, in your opinion, why has this tragedy received much less attention than Hillsborough. Many people lost their lives in Bradford too. I know John Helm was commentating that day and would be interested to read - or hear - his reminiscences. Also of interest is that one of the fans who saved others' lives there went on to be an actor in Emmerdale Farm (as it was then). His name was Martin Dale (I).

penfold

It may receive more attention on its 25th Anniversary, next May. Horrific, and yet, like Hillsborough, it led to immense improvements in Health and Safety for large crowds.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Bantam79

I was six years old on the day of the fire, and had been to about 11-12 games at Valley Parade since moving to Keighley the year previously. My father worked at an old people's home in 1985, and had been on the early shift, and arrived back home at 1pm, and rather than going to the game (we wouldn't have been in the stand as all tickets had been sold out as it was supposed to be a day of celebration after winning the 3rd Division Championship) so we decided to go to Skipton instead. Therefore, the full horror of the disaster was not apparent until Yorkshire's special programme on that evening.

There was initially a lot of anger directed towards the club. The main stand was poorly maintained, and rubbish had been left to mount up underneath the stand. The gates were padlocked and unmanned by a steward - but there was no requirement to do so - and most of the bodies were found at the back of the stand. There were supporters who went to the back of the stand and survived, and I would direct you towards Paul Firth's moving testimony in "Four Minutes to Hell" of someone who had the luckiest escape. There was talk of suing the club, but anger towards BCAFC was soon directed towards the Daily Star journalist who claimed to have seen a "killer smoke bomb" being thrown into the stand.

Each City supporter who was there has a story to tell about that day. One friend was pulled over the high paddock wall by the hood of his coat; another friend asked to leave the room when the video was shown at an RAF training seminar as he could be identified on the video in his white jumper directing supporters to head towards the pitch, rather than towards the living hell at the passage at the back of the stand.

Some supporters didn't realise the enormity of what had happened. My friend only told me a couple of weeks ago, that she along with many others had come out of the narrow stand on the opposite side to try to help in the rescue efforts, and passed a body lying in the Bradford End goal with a coat over their head, and it only clicked the day after, that person was already dead. Another friend left the ground silently and walked back to his home on the other side of the city; he could smell the burning flesh and had no wish to see what happened next. Another friend did not return to Valley Parade until 1989 - some supporters have still never returned.

As the weeks and months passed, the players spent most of their time visiting injured fans and attended the funerals of the dead. In some ways, the fire strengthened the bond between the players and supporters; for others like Terry Yorath who saw more of the aftermath than anybody else, life was never the same again.

Every May 11th, we join together in solemn rememberance. We have no wish or desire for justice, we just want to be left alone in our thoughts, and for some of our supporters, our prayers. We WILL defend the memories of the 56 people who went to a football match and never returned home. We fought successful battles against television companies and sportswear companies (horrifically our kit makers at the time) who have used footage of the fire in an inappropriate manner in their "entertainment" programmes or adverts and we will continue to do so.

11th May 1985 will never be forgotten, but the best way to preserve the memory of those who died is to look to the future and be successful on the pitch in a correct and fair manner, the Bradford City way.

cornershop15

Many thanks for that great post, Bantam. You've described those painful memories very well. I still get the feeling this is a forgotten tragedy though. The mid to late 1980s had a series of them, one soon following the other - Heysel, Zebrugger, King's Cross, Lockerbie, the Marchionesss - but Bradford is very rarely referred to. I'm sure Penfold's right that it will be commomorated in some way next year. The city will be in my thoughts with next week's anniversary. Good luck to the club.

jaycad

i think the reason why hillsborough is remembered more than the bradford city disaster is the role of the police-corrupt police stories sell newspapers and can be rehashed over and over again especially when there's a conspiracy of silence!

'QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT'

winsfordtown

I recall ITV's Yorkshire Television region broadcast the Bradford City match highlights, including the fire, as part of their normal Sunday afternoon magazine programme. I suspect mainly because it included footge of the team that had won promotion the previous day. Looking at it now it does seem to have been totally insensitive move and perhaps why the concequences of the fire wasn't taken as serious as it should.

HIPPIEDAVE

Although from the area and a lifelong supporter of Bradford Park Avenue, I remember this day well and exactly where I was, and this day should certainly always be remembered as a tragedy of great proportion that brought tears to the eyes

fintytin

I was a ten year old wee thing at the time but i remember it well-i was watching Grandstand with a pal of mine and saw the terrible images including the policeman on fire

As a lifelong Liverpool supporter i sympathise with the Bradford fans and my heart goes out to you.

peace love empathy

FintyTin

smiffy

I remember watching this tragedy unfold on the TV and I will never forget the image of one particular supporter walking onto the pitch actually on fire and being smothered by a Policemans coat .
It was Horrific and slightly surreal at the time , and as I watched the footage again I couldn't help but think about the families sat at home worrying about loved ones at the game ,my heart goes out to them now as much as then (as It does to everybody affected by Hillsborough as well )

I found the behaviour of some of the fans quite Bizarre , jumping In front of cameras and still chanting songs . They may have been unaware of the extent of the fire , I would be interested to know the mood at the game from somebody who was there .
I was a fire steward at Manchester United for many years , and can remember hosting the replay of the ill fated Hillsborough semi at OT . The behaviour of some Liverpool fans was deplorable to the extent we closed the bars In some sections , and had to extinguish a newspaper fire as well .I am not just having a dig at Liverpool because I have witnessed many stupid and dangerous antics by a number of visiting supporters And United fans as well .
It Is strange how many Intelligent and decent people behave when In a football crowd , and I believe we are safer In the all seater stadiums we have today ,the loss of atmosphere Is a small price to pay for safety .

I May be getting older ,but I refuse to grow up

cornershop15

I agree with what Smiffy says about seemingly intelligent people turning into Neanderthals when amongst other supporters. I think it was at the Ireland v England game in the mid-90s that I first heard middle-class men were among the hooligans. I also remember watching Donal McIntyre's documentary a few years ago on BBC1. Sometimes fans speak of an "adrenalin rush" when they're in this atmosphere. Others, like me, prefer to have that with the opposite sex!

I'd have thought the sight of people on fire is more haunting and distressing. Perhaps the real reason Hillsborough is remembered more than Bradford is because of Liverpool's higher status as a club and, in terms of public profile, as a city? I'd understand it from the football point of view but Bradford deserves more recognition for it's history too.

Freddy

In 1973 there was the Summerland Complex fire disaster in Douglas, Isle of Man. Fifty people died and more than eighty were injured. some of whom would have been holidaymakers.

Freddy

jaycad

i went to the replay of the hillsborough match at old trafford and saw the behaviour you mention-absolute wankers!
i'm not sure that i would like to go back to terracing now that i'm used to all seater stadia-i agree that there's been a loss of atmosphere,but i can't see myself standing for two hours before kick off in a puddle of piss getting shoved everywhere for the sake of a couple more songs and anyone saying they would like to is wearing massive rose tinted bifocals!

'QUIS EST ISTE QUI VENIT'

David Challinor

Thank you all for your comments on this thread.
Reflecting on the tragedy further, I think the 56 people who died were much more heroic than we consider them, and I’ll tell you why.
The fire was a massive wake-up call for football, stadiums in general, and, perhaps in a wider sense, society as a whole. I work in a building where there are four fire extinguishers and a fire blanket with a short walk through the fire doors. Possibly Bradford helped this happen.
Three years after 1985 I was working for a trade mag that went out to DIY shops and fire alarms suddenly had become big business. Again, I reckon Bradford had an influence. And then King’s Cross happened.

Bantam79 – now, in 2009, looking back from our compensation culture, I am in awe of the resilience of those involved who, as much as I am aware, appear not to look back in anger.
The thing I can’t get over, however, with hindsight and a very modern perception, is the fact that the club was warned about the litter under the stand by the fire services and other agencies, yet nothing, absolutely nothing, was done until lives were lost. I admit, I didn’t think the following in 1985, but, in 1995 when I happened to be in Yorkshire overnight on business, I saw on the local tv news that the chairman of the club in 1985, Stafford Heginbotham, had died, I thought: ‘wasn’t he responsible…’ Bantam, did Stafford take the blame? Did he simply fade away in shame? On my video he is interviewed by John Helm on the evening of the disaster: while he is composed he looks close to tears. Did the police do anything of an investigation? What about the other directors?
Yorkshire people are not known for keeping quiet, but I wonder whether the board or the club in general was taken to task by the local community?
Terry Yorath is a fascinating character who’s life has been touched by tragedy more than once (he’s managing Margate FC now and I wish him luck) – he was marked by this disaster, obviously.

The tragedy was a bigger turning point than I think many people realise. Imagine, as some have, that the stand was fronted by a fence, as many were after pitch invasions (remember Scotland’s at Wembley in 1977, and Millwall’s rout of the police at Luton?) – I doubt we’d have ever been allowed to see the footage, and the death toll surely would have reached four figures (there were 2,500 in that stand that day). The establishment just could not tolerate the possibility, so I think it was one of the major things than gave the health and safety message a bigger say in our lives.
In a way, the 56 who died allowed football in this country to save itself. Grounds were decrepit, Popplewell ordered changes, the sport slowly changed its image, and Sky TV’s millions were not far away.
Today’s stars and their huge wages owe those who died a debt of gratitude. The tragedy paved the way for the creation of the shiny image of top football in this country, and the huge market the sport is today.

billy bentley

Very sad stories indeed. Looking back it's a miracle there weren't more football stadium tragedies. When I was a lad attending matches at Upton Park in the 1960's they're used to be huge signs saying "Remember Ibrox". I now can't remember exactly what happened, was it a stampede ?