Bradford City stadium fire: Tim Thornton recalls tragic day 30 years on

Next month marks the 30th anniversary of the Bradford City stadium fire, which killed 56 and injured at least 265. Sky Sports News HQ reporter Tim Thornton was at the ground that day. Here, he recalls the tragic event...

Thirty years on and the memories are still as vivid as ever.

It was supposed to be a day of celebration. Bradford City had just won the old Third Division Championship and that day they would be presented with the trophy. What started with euphoric scenes of celebration ended in tragedy.

I was 10 at the time and it was a big day for me. My school team had reached the final of the Bradford Schools Cup and the match was to be played on the pitch at Valley Parade immediately after Bradford City's final league game of the season against Lincoln City.

The whole school team were in the stand that day - fortunately we all survived.

It started as a small fire in the corner of the stand, but within minutes it had escalated into a major tragedy. Initially everyone watched on, but as the blaze suddenly spread so did the panic as fans became trapped and tried desperately to escape.

I was in the opposite corner of the stand to where the fire started, my escape delayed as I went back to my position to retrieve my football boots, still naively expecting to be playing later that day. I then sprinted up the tunnel and out through the main entrance of the stadium.

By now the fire was raging across the whole of the Main Stand.

Most fans escaped onto the pitch, but those who tried to get out the way they had come in got trapped at the back of the stand as all the turnstile gates were locked. Those on the pitch tried to help others climb over the wall at the front of the stand, some of them covered in flames.

For me the next hour outside the ground was about witnessing raw emotion. Men, women and children in floods of tears, in sheer disbelief, desperately looking for loved ones. The backdrop was the noise of a burning stand, the thickest black smoke you’ll ever see and emergency sirens.

Those memories will never go away.

And the 56 people who had gone to watch a football match and not returned home will never be forgotten.

I never got to play my cup final at Valley Parade, but on that day, I was one of the lucky ones.