However, what happened that Saturday afternoon, twenty years ago, coupled with subsequent tragedies, a fortnight later at Heysel when 39 Juventus fans were crushed before the European Cup final against Liverpool in Belgium, and then at Hillsborough in 1989, led to the Taylor Report, all-seater stadia and, like all sad occasions, a sense that football is, after all, just a game.
Valley Parade had been, and still is, a ground dogged by the fact that it was built on a hillside. From the Manningham Lane side of the ground to the Midland Road Stand, there is a drop of some forty to fifty feet. At one time, after the construction of Nunn’s Kop and the Midland Road Stand by renowned football ground architect Archibald Leitch, Valley Parade held 40,000, and the fire has led to its limitation at 25,136.
It should be interjected that the Main Stand was not a Leitch construction. Indeed, of the four disasters to appear on grounds constructed by the Glaswegian, which included the death of 25 people at Ibrox Park in 1902, Bradford was the only one not to occur on either the entrance or the exit to one of his terraces, although by then his historic designs had become somewhat outdated and suffered from negligence from the authorities. It was this that led to the decline of terracing following the Taylor Report.
Back to the day in question, and contemporary reports from The Guardian indicate just how much the area was in celebratory mood, with officials from twin city Monchengladbach in attendance, and ironically off-duty firemen selling raffle tickets in the stands. Like everybody else, they were left to run for their lives when, at 3:43 p.m., a fire broke out in the Main Stand.
How it began remains a contentious issue. Of course, this was a time when football hooliganism was at its height, and this may well have led to The Guardian’s description: “one theory the police are investigating is that a flare or a smoke bomb was thrown or accidentally dropped”.
In the aftermath, it has generally been agreed that this was a disaster waiting to happen. A mixture of plastic seats and a wooden stand (sounding eerily similar to Roots Hall’s East Stand) was susceptible to what is widely thought to have sparked the flames – a match or lit cigarette.
The Main Stand was reduced to bare steel and stone, with some blackened timbers hanging from the roof support. The area was a skeleton of its former vibrant life, with a few burnt out seats, lamps and fences remaining. Supporters in the Stand claim that rubbish had built up underneath the seats throughout the season, and this aided the fire as it spread rapidly through the construction.
According again to The Guardian, “the fire brigade said that when heat builds up so quickly it can cause flames to move much quicker than people can walk.” 3,500 people were crammed in, and almost penned into a smaller area as the doors at the back of the Stand were locked to stop people attending without paying. This was the only exit, save for entering the pitch.
The Fire Brigade acted speedily to an emergency call at 3:43, but in the four minutes that it took to arrive at the ground, the Main Stand had been gutted. 56 people lost their lives and over 200 more were injured in the scramble. Some burned at the back of the Stand having been trapped by the flames, others choked at the foot of the construction as they attempted to climb over a small fence onto the pitch.
Fire-fighters were met by thick black smoke, and were hindered by the hiding of fire extinguishers, reportedly as they had been used as missiles in the past. They could not use water to fight the flames immediately as this would have hampered the rescue operation for those still struggling for their life.
The disaster in Block G led to the match being abandoned immediately by the referee Don Shaw of Sandbach. The scoreline was 0-0 at the time, and this was allowed to stand, sensibly, by the Football League.
The inquisitions followed tributes from the Queen, the Pope and political leaders. The Home Secretary, Conservative MP Leon Britton, ordered a seven-day inquiry into the events of 11 May by Mr. Justice Popplewell. 77 witnesses were called to the stand, and the evidence from this inquest led to the advancements in football stadium technology over the next decade.
£3.35 million was raised for the Bradford Disaster Appeal Fund by public fundraisers, egged on by a collective community spirit. Practically, on the pitch, the return to the Second Division, for what safety standards were unlikely to have been met in any case, the Bantams were forced to play at Bradford Northern (now Bulls) Rugby League club at Odsal Stadium, and also Leeds Road in Huddersfield and Elland Road at Leeds.
There remain many memorials to the victims of the fire, not least on Bradford City’s official website, www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk. A memorial from the German city of Hamm can be found in the centre of the conurbation, and further sculptures and depictions are at the entrances in Burlington Street and at the Sunwin Stand.
For football fans countrywide, the impact was the change in stadia to safe, all-seater, family-friendly grounds, and it is worth noting that whilst many of us moan about the lack of terracing or character at stadiums across the land, the old arenas were outdated and needed updating. For football fans in Bradford, the memories of that fateful day in May 1985 will never leave them.
Robert Craven
www.thelittlegazette.com