Fire union offered bombing response

THE Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has been asked to submit its views to a public inquiry on how the response of the fire service on the night of the Manchester Arena bombing could have been improved.

The FBU has also been invited to set out whether recommendations should be made or comment on whether changes made following the Kerslake Report were sufficient.

The ruling was given by Sir John Saunders, chairman of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, which will examine the atrocity.

The union had submitted an application for ‘core participant’ status at the inquiry, which Mr Justice Saunders refused ‘at present.’

He said in the ruling: “I have given considerable thought to how I should deal with this matter while being fair to all parties, achieving the best result for the inquiry and avoiding unnecessary costs.

“I consider that the best way to deal with the matter at the moment is that I should invite the FBU to provide me with a statement setting out their views as to the way in which the response of the fire service could have been improved and whether recommendations should be made or whether the existing changes made following the Kerslake Report are sufficient.”

A final decision, Mr Justice Saunders said, would be made at a later stage, when future recommendations arising from the atrocity are broached.

“For all those reasons, I do not think that the FBU should have CP status at present,” his ruling stated.

The Kerslake Report was an independent review into the preparedness for, and emergency response to, the Arena bombing of May 22, 2017, in which 22 lives were lost.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service was criticised in the report for its response to the blast.

Firefighters arrived at the scene two hours after, the ruling said.

Relatives of those who died, the police, security services and other emergency services, as well as other organisations and bodies, have been granted core participant status at the inquiry.

If granted, core participants may receive advance disclosure of evidence, make statements at certain hearings or apply through their legal representatives to ask questions of certain witnesses.