Should Manchester rescuers have done more?

AS A FORMER firefighter with 28 years’ experience, I am appalled by the decisions made by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in relation to the Manchester Arena bombing. Their prime directive is to save lives and render humanitarian services. They failed. The senior officers should fall on their swords.

MIcK KING, Rannoch, Isle of Arran. WHY should we be surprised that rescue services were not allowed to help the Manchester Arena victims until healthand-safety issues had been resolved? Why should we think lessons will be learned? At the Moorgate Tube train crash in 1975, the London 7/7 bombings in 2005 and at Manchester Arena, there were communication failures between the police, fire and ambulance services, rescuers were not allowed in and helplines were overwhelmed. Reports on all three disasters came out with the same advice and recommendations, yet nothing substantial has changed.

G. S. RUSSeLL, Tonbridge, Kent. DON’T criticise the emergency services. No one knew if there were other terrorists waiting to attack them. They were right to follow safety procedures. BRIAN McAVOY, Thornton-cleveleys, Lancs. iMAGiNe if professional lifesavers had run straight into the venue to help and another bomb had been detonated or an armed terrorist had opened fire. Who would then have been left to save lives?

PAUL MORLeY, Skipton, N. Yorks. ONE answer might be a combined ambulance and fire service whose personnel can enter a danger zone.

RONALD BALL, Farnborough, Hants. i WAS in the military in the Fifties, and we were trained to use our initiative,

should circumstances and common sense demand it. Now health-and-safety rules seem to be an excuse to do nothing.

PeTeR STURGeON, Mildenhall, Suffolk. BEFORE fingers are pointed at the emergency services, we should acknowledge the delay was a direct result of Britain’s health-and-safety culture, which stops children playing conkers. Ask any squaddie what he would do if a fellow soldier stood on a landmine. The first instinct is to rush over and help, but that could result in other mines detonating and more casualties. The first action is to assess the area to ensure it is safe to approach and help the wounded, exactly what the senior officers at Manchester Arena did. I have no argument with how they carried out their duties.