Bradford Fire: 25 Years On

WHEN Mark Lawn's mind wanders back to the Bradford fire, among the horror of a day no-one present will ever forget are two reasons to make the club's joint-chairman thankful.

Firstly, he did not take his two young daughters and wife to the Lincoln City game despite having bought tickets in the main stand.

And, second, that the only seating area at Valley Parade was not fenced in like the terraces were. If it had been, the death toll would have been in the hundreds and maybe even thousands.

"It doesn't bear thinking about," says Lawn, who joined the Bantams board in 2007 after a lifetime spent supporting the club. "In the chaos and mayhem of the fire taking hold, people found it hard enough to get out of the stand and on to the pitch. But if there had been fences up at the front of the stand, well..."

Lawn's voice trails off as he contemplates just how high a price the city of Bradford would have paid had the existing five-foot wall at the front of the paddock terrace been extended further by a steel fence.

Fully aware as to how the unusually high wall, caused by the front few rows of the terrace being below pitch level, made escaping difficult enough as it was, he eventually adds: "A lot of people went through a lot of bad things that day.

"People saw things that still haunt them today but it could have been even worse, if that's possible, with a fence. So many would have been trapped. It is too horrible to think about."

Lawn first watched City as a boy so had particular reason to enjoy the Third Division title triumph, it being the first trophy he had ever seen his club win.

"It was the first time we had won anything for a very long time so everyone was very excited," he said. "I wanted my wife and two young children, Sharona and Toni, to be there.

"I had been down to Valley Parade during the previous week and bought tickets for us all to sit together in the main stand. The kids were only three-years-old and 18-months-old but I wanted them to be able to say later they had been there. Thank God, they weren't.

"It was my wife who made the decision on the morning of the game. She said 'why don't you just go with your friends and have a few drinks to celebrate'.

"I am so glad she said that as I dread to think what would have happened had we all been in the main stand together.

"With the kids being so young, getting us all out safely would have been very difficult. I ended up on the opposite side of the ground to the fire on the Midland Road terrace.

"Because I didn't need them any more, I gave the tickets away outside the ground. I still wonder today just what happened to the people I handed the tickets over to as I didn't know them. I really hope nothing bad happened."

City, as they do every season, marked the anniversary of the fire with a minute's silence before the final home game of the season.

A bucket collection for the Burns Unit set up in the wake of the fire at Bradford University was also held. A cause that is very close to Lawn's heart.

He said: "The work they have done since the fire is magnificent. The Unit has become world renowned and Professor David Sharpe, who treated many of the injured in 1985, one of the leading plastic surgeons.

"The research the United has conducted has helped many, many people."

Bradford will remember those who died at tomorrow's annual service in the city's Centenary Square where hundreds are again expected to gather.

Wreaths will be laid at the fire memorial before Abide With Me and You'll Never Walk Along are played on the bells of City Hall.

Lawn, along with the entire first team squad plus club officials and management, will be there and is quick to stress that the city will never forget the day tragedy came to visit.

He said: "This time of year is always an emotional one for Bradford as we remember what happened.

"Someone said to me a few years ago that maybe the time had come to move on and not hold a minute's silence every year before the final game. This individual thought we should look forward and not back.

"But I told him the same as what I will tell you now. I could not disagree more.

"As long as those of us who were there that day are still around, it is important we take time to remember those who aren't."