Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985

IT killed 56 people and destroyed an entire stadium. Now a new film claims an Australian was responsible for the worst fire disaster in English football history.

11 May 1985, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK --- The stand burns while fans look on at Bradford football ground at the Valley Parade, Bradford in 1985. | Location: Valley Parade, Bradford, England. --- Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

A BBC documentary has named an Australian man as the person believed responsible for starting a soccer stadium inferno that killed 56 people.

A retired detective has told television program that investigators believed Aussie expat Eric Bennett accidentally caused the 1985 Bradford City stadium fire by dropping a lit cigarette onto rubbish underneath a stand, the London Daily Telegraph has reported.

The blaze has been described as the worst fire disaster in the history of English football, killing 56 and injuring nearly 270 others. Reports at the time said it took less than five minutes to spread from a public stand to the rest of the stadium, trapping fans in their seats.

Policeman Raymond Falconer worked on the case and told the BBC the official inquiry concluded the fire was not a deliberate act.

The fire on May 11 1985 killed 56 people.

A police officer using his helmet to attempt to shield the heat from his face as he races in front of the blazing main stand at Bradford City's Valley Parade football ground.

He told the Missed Warnings: the Bradford City Fire program that Mr Bennett had admitted he was at the stadium, and had been smoking on an old timber stand in the exact spot the fire is believed to have started.

The stand had reportedly been condemned and had been due to be demolished before the tragedy.

“He said he smoked a cigarette, dropped the cigarette onto the floor in front of him, went to put his foot on it, but it had unfortunately dropped through, he said, a knot hole (in the wood),” Mr Falconer told documenatry makers.

It’s the first time Mr Bennett has been named, and echoes the claim made by John Helm, a TV commenator who was calling the match on the day, and who says he spoke to the coroner after the blaze.

“Categorically, what happened was this. There was a man over from Australia visiting his son and they got two tickets to the game. He lit a cigarette and when it was coming to an end he put it down on to the floorboard and tried to put his foot on it to put it out. It slipped through a hole in the floorboard,” Mr Helm told UK newspaper Express late last month.

“A minute later he saw a small plume of smoke so he poured his coffee on it and so did his son. It seemed to put it out. But a minute or so later there was suddenly a bigger whoosh of smoke so they went to get a steward. By the time they got back, the whole thing had taken off.”

The blaze destroyed the wooden structure in just a few minutes as Bradford City played Lincoln City in an end-of-season match, leaving many fans unable to get out.

An aerial view of Bradford City's Valley Parade football ground with smoke rising from the devastating fire.

The UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis surveying the debris of Bradford City's main stand at Valley Parade.

But Mr Bennett’s nephew, Leslie Brownlie, has rejected the claims, insisting his uncle was not responsible for the inferno.

“I don’t believe the statement of Falconer at all,” he said. “I don’t know where Falconer is getting this cock-and-bull story from … The inaccuracies in this report are dumbfounding.

“At no time was Eric responsible for the fire — at no time did he say he stubbed a cigarette out and it went down a hole.”

Instead he believed blame lay with stadium authorities who had piled up flammable rubbish underneath the stands.

Originally published as Speculation an Australian man started the Bradford City stadium fire in 1985