35th Anniversary of the Bradford disaster

On this day remember the 56 people who died and 256 people injured in the Bradford City Stadium fire on 11 May 1985.

The match against Lincoln City, the final game of that season, had started in a celebratory atmosphere with the home-team receiving the Football League Third Division trophy. At 3.40 p.m., a small fire in the main stand was remarked upon by the TV commentator John Helm, but in less than four minutes, with the windy conditions, it had entirely engulfed the whole stand, trapping some people in their seats. In the mass 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, and 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 50 people later receiving police awards or commendations for bravery.

My thought are with Bradford and everyone effect, but especially the families who lost loved ones and the injured.

RIP

Very sad indeed I remember watching the game on tv and they showed the whole horrendous scenes. Very upsetting.

I remember watching this unfurl live on tv.  Absolutely tragic to watch.
I particularly remember seeing a policeman desperately trying to pull more people out of the burning stand whilst his own hair was on fire.  Brave man indeed.
RIP

It was very upsetting , I can also remember watching it live on TV and a man completely on fire coming out the stand, it showed how lax safety had become, I remember smelling smoke when in the main stand and like Hillsboro, which made me recall the times we we crushed solid and laughed at not being able to get a proper breath, that it could easily have been any of us at many, many grounds at time.
My thoughts are with those who lost loved today and thanks to the original poster for the reminder. RIP

I remember the day very well. We won 2-0 at Crystal Palace that day with Kev Drinkell scoring his final 2 goals for us.

As we were staying over in London that night we went out on the Saturday evening and bought an early edition of The Sunday People which was already out on the Saturday evening. They had a report about the fire but it said that "nobody was thought to have died". How wrong they were.

RIP to all those who lost their lives that day.

Quoted from The Yard Dog

On this day remember the 56 people who died and 256 people injured in the Bradford City Stadium fire on 11 May 1985.

The match against Lincoln City, the final game of that season, had started in a celebratory atmosphere with the home-team receiving the Football League Third Division trophy. At 3.40 p.m., a small fire in the main stand was remarked upon by the TV commentator John Helm, but in less than four minutes, with the windy conditions, it had entirely engulfed the whole stand, trapping some people in their seats. In the mass 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, and 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 50 people later receiving police awards or commendations for bravery.

My thought are with Bradford and everyone effect, but especially the families who lost loved ones and the injured.

RIP

Thanks for this Yard Dog
My cousin Gerald (40) and his twin sons Robert and Richard (12) perished in the fire so I appreciate the thoughts

For years after, any Fire Training I seemed to go on, would show the extent of that fire, and how quickly it spread.

An absolute tragedy, a terrible loss of life.

Quoted from AussieMariner

Thanks for this Yard Dog
My cousin Gerald (40) and his twin sons Robert and Richard (12) perished in the fire so I appreciate the thoughts

No problem, we go to support our team, it never enters my head, that I might not come home after a game.  It should because many time supporting GTFC during my lifetime, they have been a few scary moments. Its events like this when supporters from clubs over the country unite together as one football family.

I have been watching various BT docementaries during lockdown, one in particular stood out "One day in May" Gabby Logan remembers the Bradford City fire

The presenter, who witnessed one of the worst stadium disasters in British football history 30 years ago today, speaks to survivors in One Day in May: The Story of the Bradford City Fire.

“It’s supposed to be a day of celebration.” Those were commentator John Helm’s baffled words as the first flames took hold at Bradford City’s stadium on 11th May 1985. 11,000 fans had come to watch the team play the final game of the season against Lincoln City and lift the Division Three trophy.

At 3.40pm a fire was spotted in the main stand. Within four minutes the whole of the wooden stand was ablaze. A new BT Sport documentary presented by Gabby Logan looks back on the events of that day. Logan, then 12 years old, was at Valley Parade that day – her father Terry Yorath was Bradford City’s assistant manager – and she and her father still recall what happened in vivid detail: the day 56 fans went to watch a football match, and never came home.

Logan is just one witness in a documentary that gives voice to many survivors that day: players, supporters, police, doctors and nurses.

The 78-year-old stand was due to be demolished and replaced the very next day. Team captain Peter Jackson, 22 at the time, worked at the ground his whole career, and tells Logan how as an apprentice he used to sweep the rubbish down through holes in the stand floor. “It was a tinderbox waiting to happen,” he says.

Karl Hepton tells the camera how he went to the ground with his grandma Nellie Foster. Karl was just nine years old, and was lifted out of the stand by 64-year-old Nellie and told to run. That was the last he saw of her. His brother Carl, who didn’t have a ticket that day, went to the local hospital to try find her. “We thought she were invincible, but she didn’t get out,” he says.

There are many such stories of heroism. Matthew Wildman suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, and was on crutches when the fire started just one block away from where he was sitting. He was rescued from the blaze twice by fellow supporter David Hustler, who caught Matthew as he jumped eight foot from the stand to safety on the concrete floor below.

David, we’re told, now has problems with his memory, but when the pair meet again the events of Valley Parade still seem fresh. “Everything I did that day is in my head,” says David.

Now those memories are also recorded, the testimony of eyewitnesses saved. “The Bradford Fire story has never been told like this before,” Logan says. “It is in many ways the quiet tragedy and that reflects the personality of the city. The people of Bradford were incredible in the way they reacted on the 11th May 1985 and they have been remarkable in the way they have allowed us to tell the story in 2015.”

A very good documentary, hard to watch without shredding a tear, I don't mind admitting it either.

I will bow my head and hold my own one minute rememberance, forever in my thoughts.

That BT documentary is on tonight for anyone who hasn't seen it before (I think it's on their website to watch for free too?). Terrifying viewing.

Even more poignant given the loss of Trevor Cherry so recently.

My father and I sat transfixed before the TV that day. Looking back on it the ITV director at the time must have been in agonies about allowing filming to continue and I am sure today it would have been switched over to another camera to avoid some of those horror scenes. We must not forget, there are families with empty chairs tonight.