text: Thirty years after the Bradford City fire which killed 56 football supporters, a new book written by a survivor of the disaster claims it was not an accident. Author Martin Fletcher points the finger at the late Stafford Heginbotham, Bradford City's chairman at the time and a businessman who had been linked to eight previous blazes. 'Could any man really be as unlucky as Heginbotham?' writes Fletcher, after 15 years spent researching the fire in which four members of his family died. The fire at Bradford City's Valley Parade claimed 56 victims and injured 265 on May 11, 1985 . The 30th anniversary is approaching since the tragic fire that killed 56 people at Bradford's ground in 1985 . Fire engulfs Valley Parade on a day nobody can ever forget as 56 were killed at the football stadium . A police officer uses his helmet to shield the heat from his face as he runs in front of the stand on fire . Then-Bradford chairman Stafford Heginbotham (left) with Mr Justice Popplewell in front of the burned stand . 1: May 1967: fire in Stafford Heginbotham's factory at Cutler Heights Lane . 2: April 1968: fire at Genefoam Ltd, managing director is Heginbotham . 3: August 1970: store-room explosion at Matgoods, founded by Heginbotham . 4: Dec 1971: tenant fire at Castle Mills, Cleckheaton, owned by Heginbotham . 5: August 1977: fire at Yorkshire Knitting Mills, in Heginbotham-owned Douglas Mills building . 6: Dec 1977: fire at Coronet Marketing factory. Coronet a subsidiary of Tebro Toys, owned by Heginbotham . 7: Nov 1977: fire with toxic fumes at his Douglas Mills factory . 8: June 1981: fire in a plastics factory at Douglas Mills . His brother Andrew, 11, his father John, 34, his uncle Peter, 32, and his grandfather Eddie, 63, were among the 54 Bradford supporters and two Lincoln supporters who did not survive. Fletcher, who was 12 at the time became determined to challenge the accepted theories which he believes were founded upon a flawed investigation. He discovered that Heginbotham, who died in 1995 at the age of 61, had been connected to at least eight other fires at business premises and insurance claims dating back to 1967. His findings have been published in Fifty-Six – The Story of the Bradford Fire, which is being serialised in The Guardian. It stops short of a direct accusation of arson but inferences are clear and he is certain more should have been done at the time to investigate the disaster and those responsible. He hopes these questions can be officially addressed and that his research will prompt a new investigation into the disaster as the 30th anniversary approaches next month. No-one has sought accountability for the fire since the official inquiry chaired by High Court judge Oliver Popplewell recorded its findings following five days of hearings held less than a month after the blaze. The inquiry found that a small fire was probably caused by a spark from a discarded cigarette or match dropped through a gap in the wooden frame of the main stand on to piles of rubbish which had been collecting for years. It was the final game of the season and should have been a day of celebration. Before kick-off Bradford were presented before with the trophy for winning the Third Division title. The fire was noticed towards the end of the first half and within four minutes the stand packed with 4,000 spectators was fully ablaze. There were no fire extinguishers and no designated fire escapes. A 12-year-old Martin Fletcher is comforted by his mother Susan in 1985 after the Bradford Fire disaster . One survivor looks distraught with his burns visible (left) while another sits in front of a burned out stand . Prime minister Margaret Thatcher visits the scene of the disaster with her husband Dennis in 1985 . Tributes paid to the 56 who were killed by the fire on the same day Bradford should have been celebrating . His many businesses included toy company Tebro Toys. He once described football as 'the opera of the people'. After an initial spell as Bradford chairman, he came back in 1983 when he and another local businessman, Jack Tordoff, saved Bradford from the receivers, buying the club for around £30,000 each. Heginbotham resigned as chairman in 1988 due to ill health. He died on April 21 1995 after a heart transplant. He was 61. The tragedy, followed by Heysel, less than three weeks later, and Hillsborough in 1989, accelerated safety changes in football ground. The community turned inwards to comfort each other. They raised money for the Burns Unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary and supported friends through the aftermath of loss, physical pain and the psychological problems. They were not inspired by the need to fight and clear their names like the families of those killed at Hillsborough. As a whole they accepted it was a terrible accident and nothing came from the media or the courts to change that view. Bradford City reacted to early criticism that it had failed to honour the tragedy and there are memorials in the city centre and at the stadium and an annual memorial service, attended mostly by a few hundred of the people most closely affected. In 2010, on the 25th anniversary, there were an estimated two thousand at the service in the city's Centenary Square but this year there has been such a surge of interest that the club considered moving it to Valley Parade. Times have changed and social media has fuelled a craving for public outpourings of sympathy. Football's authorities decided that this year there would be a minute's silence before all games on April 25, when Bradford play Barnsley at Valley Parade. It is the final game of the season and Bradford always remember the victims of the fire at the home game closest to the anniversary. Representatives from Bradford and Lincoln have also been invited to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-finals this weekend and the FA will be represented at the annual memorial service in Bradford on May 11. These are specific to the 30th anniversary and yet are in tune with a general increase in attention which has coincided with an upturn in the club's fortunes. But it sits uneasily with many at Valley Parade. Then-Bradford chairman  Heginbotham (left) outside Valley Parade, where 56 people died and 265 were injured . The remains of the stand at Bradford's ground after the disaster on Saturday May 11, 1985 at Valley Parade . Investigators look around the burned out stand at Bradford's ground following the tragedy in 1985 . The charred remains of a Bradford programme from the day of the fire in which 56 people were killed . Author Martin Fletcher writes about his own experience at the Bradford Disaster, and asks why chairman Stafford Heginbotham was not investigated: . 'Why was it left to the 12-year-old who lost three generations and four members of his family, who was with over 40 people when they died within a 10-yard radius of him, who somehow got out of the stand, as the last person to get out, the only person to get out the front after being at the back, and the only person to survive the smoke?' Many supporters were unsure about a memorial flag which was taken to Wembley when Bradford reached the League Cup final two years ago. Arsenal and Hull fans then applauded in the 56th minute of last year's FA Cup final, a well-intentioned mark of solidarity copied by Oldham fans at Valley Parade, this season. Others have turned up and started to sing 'Stand up for the 56'. Again, this has provoked a mixed response. Some Bradford supporters believe the victims should be remembered in this way, others prefer it to keep it private. A stage documentary called The 56 is touring local theatres and children's entertainers the Chuckle Brothers have launched a charity single with members of Black Lace. Another fan has been selling old seats numbered 1-56 which were reclaimed from the stand this year while '56' branded hoodies and T-shirts are on sale, some more tasteful than others. Profits from some of these ventures will go to the Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit (PSBRU) at the University of Bradford, set up by Professor David Sharpe after the fire. In another year of success for Bradford City, with FA Cup wins against Chelsea and Sunderland, the club has found the dynamic is altering around what was once called football's less remembered tragedy. It may never be the same again after Martin Fletcher's book. He started his own investigations in 1994, when his mother told him Valley Parade had not been Heginbotham's first fire. The more he unearthed, the more his mind was made up. His findings will disturb the peace in Bradford.
target: Fifty-six people were killed and 265 were injured on May 11, 1985, when the Bradford City fire disaster occurred at Valley Parade .
  Martin Fletcher's mother, Susan, told her son about the disaster on May 11, 1994, that killed her other son, husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law .
  Then-Bradford chairman Stafford Heginbotham was linked to at least eight other fires before the disaster at Valley Parade .
  Fletcher is releasing his book, 'Fifty-Six - The Story of the Bradford Fire'