Bradford City Stadium Fire
Thirty years ago next month 56 peopled were killed and at least 265 injured, some critically, when a fire engulfed bleachers at Bradford City’s Valley Parade stadium in West Yorkshire, U.K.
I was on duty at the firehouse and I can still remember watching clips on TV. In one epic shot escapees are running across the football pitch as the fully involved stands rage behind them.
Several are on fire, possibly from the intense radiant heat.
A “bobby” or police officer is most of the way across when he looks over his shoulder and sees that someone has fallen some distance behind him.
He stops, turns, and runs back to make the rescue in one of the most extraordinary acts I have ever seen.
The coroner’s inquest recommended a “death by mis-adventure” verdict. The Bradford City Association Football Club and the local council were found liable, as well they should have been.
The stands were constructed entirely of wood and the underneath was strewn with litter which fed the fire.
Fire exits were both blocked and inadequate.
But, a new wrinkle has emerged.
The Guardian reports that Martin Fletcher, a fire survivor who lost three relatives in the holocaust, has written a book suggesting that the chairman of the football club, Stafford Heginbotham, may have been responsible for the fire.
Fletcher’s investigation reveals that Heginbotham is linked to eight other fires at his businesses, some under odd circumstances.
He offers the following in the Guardian excerpt, “To quote a Los Angeles Police Department fire investigator in Blaze, the Forensics of Fire by Nicholas Faith: ‘It’s rare to have a coincidence. If we start having multiple coincidences then it’s not a coincidence.”
The U.K. and it’s ardent footballers, some hooligans, have an atrocious record where fan safety, at home and abroad, are concerned.
Bradford City is a reminder that crowd safety should be a concern for all of us.
Keep your eyes and eyes open, make your move for safety at the first hint of trouble and remember to trust the “hair on the back of your neck.”
Sources: Guardian, Wiki