John Helm was commentating on Bradford City’s game against Lincoln City when the fire broke out and still struggles to listen to his description of that fatal day. Here he gives his insight into what caused the blaze. It was a day I have often tried to forget, but it was the one I must always remember. Approaching the 30th anniversary of the Bradford City fire, it was inevitable I would be asked to recall the horrific images from a match I was commentating on for Yorkshire Television. What I did not expect was for someone to suggest the fire may not have been an accident, as Martin Fletcher has done with his book Fifty-Six, the Story of the Bradford Fire. The tragic fire at Bradford City's Valley Parade stadium claimed 56 victims and injured 265 on May 11, 1985 . Martin lost three generations of his family and has a right to speak his mind — any bitterness would be understandable — but from everything I have been told there isn’t a jot of evidence to suggest the blaze was caused deliberately. On the contrary, I remember the coroner telling me it was obvious how the fire had started. Detective Inspector Raymond Falconer actually identified a man who had dropped a lit cigarette that went down a hole in the stand and started the fire. This corroborates what I was told at the time by the coroner. He said it was believed the fire had been started by a man, visiting this country from Australia, but his name was never revealed. Without making allegations against the club’s chairman at the time Stafford Heginbotham, there is inference by implication in the book — with reference to a series of fires at factories owned by the now deceased Heginbotham. As members of his own family were seated in the stand that day, and as it was due to be demolished anyway 48 hours later, it is unfathomable to think there could have been an act of arson. I find it abhorrent that Stafford Heginbotham’s family are being subjected to this unseemly inference at a time when people are still grieving and paying their respects three decades on from the most horrendous day of their lives. There isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest anything other than a terrible human tragedy. It should also never be forgotten that Heginbotham twice saved Bradford City from extinction. As son James said to me: ‘He put that club above everything else, including family and business.’ A memorial at Valley Parade pays tribute those who died  in the devastating blaze almost 30 years ago . We all have our memories of a day that still sends a shudder up my spine. I cannot bear to watch the footage. If I hear my voice describing the tragedy as it unfolded I have to leave the room. Many of the 54 Bradford and two Lincoln fans who lost their lives, choked to death with inhalation of fumes. The smell was of acrid tar. As a Bradfordian myself I knew many of those fleeing for their lives, as I attempted to describe the scenes without becoming over-emotional. Thirty years on we try to forget but we must always remember. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.
John Helm was commentating on the game the day the fire broke out.
He gives his insight into what cause the blaze 30 years ago.
'From everything I have been told there isn’t a jot of evidence to suggest the blaze was caused deliberately,' says Helm.