The Bradford City fire, 40 years on: ‘I can still hear the crackling of the timber burning’

11th May 1985: The fire at Valley Parade, the football ground in Bradford where 56 people died.

“… For Stuart McCall, it’s the ashen-faced police officer quietly revealing an hour or so after Bradford City’s antiquated wooden main stand had been engulfed in flames, ‘All those who could get out, got out’. Former police chief inspector Terry Slocombe, meanwhile, recalls vividly how the intense heat meant those pulling fans to safety had to keep retreating to the centre of the pitch to take precious breaths, just as sports reporter David Markham can “still hear the crackling of the timber burning” when he closes his eyes. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

“Only the concrete corner block housing the dressing rooms remains today from the Valley Parade where tragedy struck in 1985. Looking around Bradford City’s rebuilt home, it’s hard to believe 56 lives were lost here as fire ripped through the wooden main stand with such ferocity that eye-witnesses later described the flames spreading ‘faster than a man could run’. Hundreds more were left seriously injured in what, until Hillsborough four years later, was the worst stadium disaster in the history of English football. …”
NY Times/The Athletic: The Bradford City fire, 40 years on: How the club, the city and football responded

Riots at Heysel during Liverpool’s European Cup final against Juventus on May 29, 1985