Bradford City fire was NOT an accident: Football boss linked to 8 other fires before 1985
THE Bradford City fire that killed 56 football fans 30 years ago was one of nine at businesses owned or linked to the club’s then chairman, a survivor claims in a new book.
The shock revelations come after a lengthy investigation by Martin Fletcher who lost three generations of his family in the disaster.
He is calling for a new investigation into the cause of the blaze.
Martin, 12 when he escaped the burning Valley Parade timber main stand on May 11, 1985, was dubbed the “bravest boy in Britain”.
The fire, which broke out during a game against Lincoln City, is believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette.
But in his new book Fifty-Six – The Story Of The Bradford Fire, Martin questions whether it was an accident.
After researching newspaper files going back 20 years he claims to have discovered eight other fires at business premises owned by, or connected to, Stafford Heginbotham.
He alleges the fires resulted in huge insurance claims – equivalent to £27million today.
Martin, 42, does not make any allegation against Heginbotham, who died 20 years ago aged 61.
But he said yesterday: “Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham had been?”
He also claims that Heginbotham was in desperate financial trouble and was facing a £2million bill to bring Valley Parade up to safety standards following the club’s promotion from the old Third Division.
An inquiry by Judge Oliver Popplewell, convened a month after the fire, ruled it was probably started by a match, a cigarette or pipe tobacco.
It then set fire to litter that had accumulated in a space under the wooden stand over the previous two decades.
Fletcher claims the fires connected to Heginbotham firms began in May 1967 in one of his factories in Bradford.
Eleven months later there was another fire there.
In August 1970 there was a storeroom explosion at a firm founded by Heginbotham in Wyke, Bradford.
The following year there was a fire at a building in Cleckheaton, owned by Heginbotham.
Six years later another Heginbotham-owned building in Bradford had two fires three months apart.
The same year there was a fire at another factory linked to Heginbotham.
Then in 1981 there was yet another factory fire.
Martin’s brother Andrew, 11, was the youngest victim.
His father John, 34, uncle Peter, 32, and grandfather Eddie, 63, also died.
His determination to discover “the truth” stems from a conversation with his mother Susan 21 years ago.
She told him: “I never believed it was an accident and I never will.”
Fifty-Six – The Story Of The Bradford Fire, by Martin Fletcher (Bloomsbury, £16.99) is out today, nine days before a minute’s silence at every Premier League and Football League match to mark the fire’s upcoming 30th anniversary.
