FORGIVE US
‘Young children were dying... A paramedic was begging with us, pleading with us to help, but officers wouldn’t let us go in’
FIRE crews desperate to help the dying victims of the Manchester Arena bomb attack were held back by “risk averse” bosses for two hours, it emerged in an official report yesterday.
It prompted a public apology by one firefighter who said they had “never ever felt so much guilt in all my life”.
Firefighters who heard the deadly blast were ordered to merely stand by, the damning 226-page Kerslake Report said.
Islamic State-inspired Salman Abedi, 22, exploded his suicide bomb at 10.31pm after a packed Ariana Grande concert on May 22 last year, killing 22 people and injuring 700.
Paramedics and police used common sense to ignore “action protocols” and treat the wounded. But “out of the loop” Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service made crews sit on the sidelines for fear of further attacks.
The senior fire officer on duty, a National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer, believed an “active shooter” scenario was still in play and stuck to rules keeping emergency responders more than 540 yards from any suspected “hot” zone.
Lord Kerslake’s review of the 999 response found medics treated the wounded within 11 minutes, yet fire crews failed to act for two hours and six minutes.
In an emotional open letter, the anonymous firefighter wrote: “I have been a firefighter for 10 years now and never ever felt so much guilt in all my life.
“Young children were dying and we weren’t there to help. I did not sign up to the best job in the world to turn my back!
“We were only half a mile away from helping, from potentially saving lives. Even a paramedic came to us pleading. She was begging us, pleading with us to help. We pleaded with our highranking officers to let us go but that got declined on numerous occasions.
“I would personally like to apologise to the victims and their families because I was part of a service you depend on and we weren’t there when you needed us.
“Please forgive your firefighters who were begging to help.”
Yesterday, the besieged fire brigade apologised “unreservedly” for its failures. Acting fire chief Dawn Docx said: “The 22nd May was Greater Manchester’s darkest hour and our response fell far short. I apologise unreservedly for that.
“There were clearly failures in leadership and poor decisions made. Firefighters themselves, desperate to attend the incident, were also let down.
“The fundamental mistake that night was failing to communicate with our partner agencies.”
Fire Brigades Union assistant general secretary Andy Dark said the report raised “important questions, not least Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service being the only emergency service in Manchester without its own dedicated control room”. The report said British Transport Police were on the scene one minute after the blast and declared a major incident by 10.39pm.
Greater Manchester Police’s duty inspector declared Operation Plato, a pre-arranged plan to tackle a marauding armed terrorist, but wrongly assumed other services were aware. But the officer then overrode the rules so police and paramedics could attend.
As the senior fire officer could not contact police, the brigade was “brought to the point of paralysis” and firefighters waited at a station outside the city centre.
The officer still believed the “active shooter” scenario and kept teams away. And while a co-ordi-
nating group of 999 services gathered at police headquarters, nowretired chief fire officer Peter O’Reilly delayed their response further by focusing his senior officers at their own HQ.
Mr O’Reilly has yet to respond to the report findings and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham announced a “root and branch” review of the fire service.
The report says it hopes a scenario of different 999 services unable to communicate with each other “will never happen again”.
Lord Kerslake said yesterday: “There is a lot to be proud of in the response to the attack. But it’s also vital to learn the lessons around things that did not go so well. Paralysed bomb victim Martin Hibbert, 41, said: “The first-aiders had first aid kits and trauma bags. That’s all they had. The scene was like what you would see in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a battlefield.”
Manchester MP Lucy Powell said: “Many firefighters got in touch with me, ashamed and upset they hadn’t been deployed.”
North West Ambulance Service chief executive Derek Cartwright said: “I am confident our response undoubtedly saved lives.”
Communications giant Vodafone was also slammed for not providing the emergency hotline paid for by the Home Office. Lord Kerslake said the firm should apologise to the victims’ families.