i Editor's Letter: The fatal gamble with fans’ lives

Today’s cover story is shocking: a new book by Martin Fletcher, a Bradford City fan who in 1985 survived the club’s stadium disaster and lost his family, claims that eight other fires broke out at businesses owned by, or associated with, Bradford’s then chairman. It is impossible to draw firm conclusions from the finding – indeed, Mr Fletcher avoids doing so. Thirty years after the fire, and 20 years after the death of ex-chairman Stafford Heginbotham, we have no means to examine primary evidence afresh, and Mr Heginbotham has no chance to explain.

There is a clear public interest in Mr Fletcher’s work, though: the inquiry into the fire and 56 deaths was conducted with undue haste. Which modern judge’s inquiry would start only three weeks after a disaster, and hear five days of testimony? Regardless of these new claims, Mr Heginbotham was guilty of gross negligence bordering on criminality for gambling with fans’ lives. He ignored warnings about the fire risk of litter gathering beneath the stand. In the tinderbox’s charred remains, investigators found a copy of the Bradford Telegraph & Argus from 1968. The coroner later revealed that he considered a manslaughter charge against the club.

What happened after the fire was no less disgusting: nothing. Stadium safety should have been overhauled. Instead, key recommendations (tighter safety certificates, improved evacuation) were ignored. It took another four years, and the deaths of 96 at Hillsborough, before ministers and the national game acted.

I doubt there will be a new inquiry. I doubt much would be established if there were one. But Mr Fletcher’s book betrays the deficiency of earlier investigations, and shames those who failed to act.

i@independent.co.uk

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