by Our Sports Desk

Families of the 56 football fans who died in the Bradford fire said yesterday that the service to mark the 30th anniversary of the tragedy was “humbling.”

More than 1,000 people gathered in the sunshine in Bradford’s Centenary Square to remember those who died and the hundreds who were injured when fire destroyed the main stand at the Valley Parade ground on May 11 1985.

Many of the fans who gathered wore the Bantams’ distinctive claret and amber colours as they listened in silence while the 56 names were read out to the tolling of the bell in the City Hall clock, which towers over the square.

Among those reading the names was John Helm, the ITV football commentator who famously described the unfolding chaos as flames quickly engulfed the wooden stand shortly before half-time while the home team played Lincoln in an end-of-season clash.

Fifty-four City supporters lost their lives, along with two Lincoln fans.

Fans who gathered to lay wreaths after the service said the event brought back terrible memories but was a “wonderful” act of remembrance.

Georgie Dempsey-Moore, 46, lost her father Derek Dempsey in the disaster.

Mrs Dempsey-Moore said: “This is just wonderful, although it has brought everything back. It just feels like it was last week.

“It is really humbling to see just how wonderfully the city of Bradford is remembering and I know that when I’m not here

any more, this will still be remembered and dad will live on forever.”

Mrs Dempsey-Moore, who was 16 in 1985, recalled that she would have been in the stand with her father but she could not go to the game because she went to a youth club disco the night before and had not finished her homework.

She said: “There is part of me that is still a little girl missing her dad.”

The build-up to the anniversary has been overshadowed by a new book by Martin Fletcher, whose father, brother, uncle and grandfather died in the fire.

While the book does not make any direct allegations, it says Heginbotham’s history with fires should be investigated further.