This is a matter very close to mine and Dans hearts.
and, first of all, we'd like to apologise for any offence caused.
it's an attempt to keep the memory of all involved alive...not cause hurt or pain to anyone
We will never forget our fans who died as a result of this terrible tragedy...
This page is dedicated to their memory...
and as a thanks to those brave people who tried to save them...

THANKYOU

This proves that there ARE angels in this world

CG & DAN

BRADFORD CITY-V-LINCOLN CITY

VALLEY PARADE, BRADFORD

Saturday 11th May 1985

on the day we recieved the 3rd div championship trophy

56 people died...over 200 injured

ALWAYS IN OUR THOUGHTS

Bradford City�s day of disaster

Saturday, May 11, 1985

You could see it from a mile away. Early that Sunday morning, May 12, the eerie glow of a single floodlight shone like a halo in the smoky blue air above Valley Parade.

It marked the place where 12 hours previously triumph had turned into a terrible tragedy.

The light marked a place of grieving and unutterable sorrow. It was to mark a place of flowers too, thousands and thousands of them which were to bank the entire length of what had been the main stand at the home of Bradford City Football Club.

Fifty-six people died, scores more were injured or traumatised. These facts are scarred forever across the collective consciousness of Bradford, and indeed many other towns and cities; people had come from all over the North to watch City�s young team parade the Third Division Championship trophy before the last match of the season.

Eleven thousand filled Valley Parade. The game against Lincoln City was proving to be a scrappy goalless affair when, shortly before half-time, a puff of smoke rose from the seating at the far end of the main stand.

Spectators standing on the unsheltered Kop and in the cow-shed of the Midland Road directly opposite watched in bemusement as the smoke became a puff of flame, no bigger than a bush.

Within seconds the flame was taller than a tree. A gust of wind fanned it up to the tar-covered roof.

On top of the Midland Road stand the camera crew from YTV swung their cameras from the game, which was still going, to the main stand. People were scattering. Flames licked the edge of the roof and then, like a trail of gunpowder, flared along the length of it. A thick cloud of oily black smoke piled into the sky, reminiscent of Dunkirk during the war.

City�s-then captain was Peter Jackson. "I was standing near the corner flag, by the tunnel, when the ref stopped the game and said we would have to see what happened.

"I saw my wife Alison and daughter Charlotte on the players� balcony. I went out and got them. Most of the players went outside into the road and after three-quarters-of-an-hour we went up to the Belle Vue pub for a roll call.

"When I got home all I did was sit on the settee in my kit with my daughter on my knees, I don�t know for how long. I just sat there and couldn�t believe what was happening; it was just unreal," he said.

Such was the intensity of the heat, which could be felt across the other side of the ground, the stand was destroyed in just four minutes. Bradford�s deputy Lord Mayor Bill Nunn and his wife Betty, the Lady Mayoress, had been in it, playing host to the civic heads from the city�s twin towns in West Germany, Belgium, and France, who had come over for the Championship day.

"The match hadn�t been that interesting. I was thinking ahead about plans for the evening. Most of the party had left the stand to get a cup of tea just before half-time. I hung on because it looked as though City might score.

"I looked to the left and saw smoke. I thought a smoke bomb had gone off. Then we saw fire. I made sure my wife and the burgomeister of Hamm got out. Fortunately someone had opened one of the rear doors and we walked out of the ground.

"We went to the Norfolk Gardens Hotel (now the Hilton), where our guests were staying, and had a conference about whether we should go ahead with the evening�s events. We didn�t know, we didn�t realise, we were told that everybody had got out of the ground," he said.

Most people thought that, including T&A journalists who had been watching the game from the Midland Road area. Within a couple of hours of going back to the paper�s old newsroom the number of fatalities was put at between nine and 20. Calls came in from all over the country, and then all over the world.

Detective Superintendent Roger Wiseman was within a week of retiring from West Yorkshire Police. That Saturday afternoon he was on duty at Leeds Road, Huddersfield Town�s former stadium. Then he heard a police message for personnel carriers to go to Valley Parade to assist the ambulance service. He immediately got into a patrol car and rushed to Bradford.

"I have never seen as much shock on police officers� faces. There was a dull sense of cold shock. They were standing there in dirty and burnt uniforms, some were trembling, there was a feeling of unreality.

"I stayed all night and supervised the removal of the bodies. It was the worst job of my career. We arranged for a policeman to be responsible for the bodies right through to the inquest. We were picking up jewellery and wristwatches. It was a long cold night.

"One thing I�ll never forget was the Salvation Army. They stood on the terraces all night handing out food and coffee to the officers. By 6am we had got all the bodies out. I went home at about 7am."

Convoys of casualties were driven to Bradford Royal Infirmary, which had a burns clinic. Doctors set up a production line, allocating victims to wards depending on the nature of their injuries. In three hours BRI staff had checked 190 people. By 8am all the patients were in the wards.

Consultant plastic surgeon David Sharpe said it was like a wartime situation. He brought in a team of 13 surgeons from hospitals throughout the North - a tenth of the country�s burns experts. In three days they operated on 57 patients; in 90 per cent of cases skin grafts to the hands were successful first time round.

"If we had not done that there would have been all sorts of problems. The patients would have been on the wards for weeks and weeks�It was very humbling to see how they coped with this horrific ordeal.

"It was a unique incident and I learnt a lot about human nature. I learnt that there is an awful lot of good in people," he said.

Bradford Council, led by its dynamic chief executive the late Gordon Moore, reacted to the disaster with great speed, tact, and determination. Social Services set aside four to five staff to operate a helpline. Within 48 hours an officer was put in charge co-ordinating money-raising appeals for the fire disaster fund. A senior personnel officer joined Bradford lawyer Roger Suddards met organisers of the Penlee and Aberfan appeals to learn how the best way of running the disaster fund.

The church quickly organised special services at Bradford Cathedral and later at Valley Parade. The-then Bishop, the Right Reverend Robert Williamson, had himself played football for Glentoran in Northern Ireland, visited casualties at BRI, St Lukes, and Pinderfields at Wakefield.

Interviewed by the T&A two days after the fire the Bishop dared to ask the most difficult of questions. "Was there not evidence at the ground of something stronger than death itself, in all those people risking their lives to save others? Perhaps it was a reflex to do so, but what caused that? I have always found on the other side of disaster there is courage and selflessness."

Pity Poor Bradford, a 17th Century ghost is said to have wailed. The world did; but Bradford collectively turned tragedy into its finest hour. The �4m raised for the disaster appeal was duly distributed through a trust fund without the slightest controversy or complaint.

On July 24 Mr Justice Popplewell, who had held a seven-day fire inquiry at City Hall, published his interim report recommending radical changes which have led to greater safety improvements at sports ground holding more than 5,000 people.

On Sunday, December 14, 1986, a re-built Valley Parade opened with a game against an England XI who included Peter Shilton and Kevin Keegan. City won 2-1

story from: http://www.thisisbradford.co.uk/bradford__district/100_years/1985.html
pictures from: http://www.bradfordtimeline.freeserve.co.uk/fire.htm