Forty years of hurt
It was one of football’s worst tragedies, as a survivor of the Bradford City fire remembers
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It wasn’t unusual for smoke to drift over the stands at Bradford City’s ground – this was the mid-1980s, when people would smoke at football matches – so, on 11 May 1985, Matthew Wildman ignored the plumes rising from the stands and concentrated on the match against Lincoln City, which was approaching the end of the first half. It was the final game of the season, and the team had already won the league, so the crowd was in a celebratory mood. “We were all swept up in the excitement,” remembers Wildman, who was 17 at the time. But he and his friends couldn’t ignore the smoke for long.
The fire – believed to have been started by a discarded match or cigarette – engulfed the wooden stand at the club’s Valley Parade ground within minutes. It killed 56 people and injured at least 265 others. Wildman was the last person to make it out of the stand and survive.
Alongside first responders, other survivors and bereaved families, Wildman is interviewed in the new BBC2 documentary Unforgotten: the Bradford City Fire. The tragedy led to legislation banning new wooden grandstands at UK sports venues, but it has since largely faded from collective memory.
40 years on, Wildman remembers being near the back of the stand and headed towards the rear corridor, which was already full of people trying to get to the exits. The turnstiles, it would emerge, were locked.
The fire engulfing Valley Parade’s wooden grandstand claimed 56 lives. Yorkshire Evening Post / Telegraph & Argus
Having been diagnosed with arthritis as a child, he struggled to pick up his crutches, crammed against bigger, older men. “The corridor was getting full of thick black smoke. And the crowd started to panic,” he says.
His friends were carried along the corridor by the surge of people, but Wildman was pushed to the floor, with two men falling on top of him. “I would have stayed there if it hadn’t been for a man tripping over me, hearing me shout, and digging me out.” He helped him get away from the corridor and back to the stand.
The only way out was via the pitch, which was over a wall, with a drop on the other side. “I looked at my hands, the skin was bubbling up. At that point, I knew there was only one direction to go, and that was over the wall.” A man managed to catch him and drag him out.
Matthew Wildman suffered burns to 50 per cent of his body. BBC
Wildman was in hospital for around two months, with burns to 50 per cent of his body. In the first few weeks, he had multiple operations, including extensive skin grafts. Plastic surgeons from around the country came to help patients. “It was a case of being positive, seeing the small gains every day. My focus had to be on getting better.”
The corridor was full of smoke, the crowd started to panic
It was his positive outlook and desire to move forward that helped Wildman cope. He remained in Bradford, setting up a computer business, and now lives in a village just outside the city. “Bradford has had its troubles, but things like this bring out the good in everyone, and everyone came together. It would be nice to think that spirit carries on and, in some cases, it absolutely does.”
It has given him a sense of purpose: Wildman still raises money for the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit at the University of Bradford, and attends conferences to show how his recovery is going, decades on. “The advancements made in burns treatments, which started with all the extra work that needed to be done at that time, were shared around the world and they continue to help develop new techniques.”
With his love of the game undiminished, he went back to the stadium, where a new stand was built. “We were apprehensive when we did return,” he says. “Looking over towards the stand was difficult, but it became easier over time.” The 1985 Popplewell inquiry ruled that the fire had been an accident, but found the club had been warned of the risk (a later case, brought against the club and council for negligence, found both responsible).
For Wildman, there has always been a sense of overwhelming gratitude, rather than survivors’ guilt. “There were 56 people who lost their lives, and I just feel so lucky that it wasn’t 57.” When he does think about it, he says, from the two men who saved him, to the medics and volunteers who cared for him, “it’s with pure amazement and being thankful”. EMINE SANER
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Donate to Wildman’s fundraiser for the BCFC burns unit at justgiving.com/page/matthew-wildman-1
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