Forty years on, the day when celebrations turned to horror

May 11, 1985 should have been a day of joy and revelry when fans, players and officials came together to celebrate Bradford City winning the league and being promoted to the second division.

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Instead, joy turned to horror as fire broke out in the main stand at Valley Parade, taking hold with terrifying speed and claiming the lives of 56 supporters and leaving countless others injured and deeply traumatised.

I remember driving through Bradford with my dad that afternoon; we were on our way home from a guitar shop on the other side of the city. The centre was at a standstill. There were people everywhere, bewildered, in shock, faces blackened by smoke and expressions haunted by what they had witnessed.

I was just a kid and had nightmares for weeks afterwards but that was nothing compared with what the victims’ families and the survivors endured.

Now, 40 years on, the BBC documentary Unforgotten: The Bradford City Fire looks at the events and the aftermath of that day, using the personal stories of those who lived through it.

Footage from the day is a difficult watch. Supporters in the main stand were able to escape the flames by going on to the pitch. What the death toll might have been if they had been kept behind tall wire fences in other areas of the ground is a subject for another day, another column.