Mistakes brought the fire service ‘to brink of failure’

Bosses held crews back for two hours

FIRE crews desperate to help victims of the Manchester Arena bombing were held back by their bosses for two hours amid mistakes that brought the service ‘to the brink of failure’.

While paramedics and armed police were on the scene of last May’s attack within 10 minutes, the fire service was in ‘paralysis’, according to Lord Bob Kerslake’s report into the atrocity.

Frustrated crews - many of whom had heard the blast from their city centre post - were instead sent to a station in Beswick, three miles away, only to later be sent back into town again amid confusion.

Lord Kerslake’s review concludes the actions of then-chief officer Peter O’Reilly ‘played a key role’

in the delays, while concluding ‘poor communication and poor procedures’ within the service were more broadly at fault.

The review also finds that Vodafone, which holds the national Home Office contract for emergency post-disaster hotlines, experienced a ‘catastrophic’ technical failure on the night that meant no fully- functioning phone number could be set up for desperate people in search of information.

Some relatives were forced to drive around hospitals in search of loved ones instead.

His review also criticises Greater Manchester Police for a breakdown in communication with other agencies that saw key officers overloaded with responsibilities and the fire service struggling to get key updates.

Nevertheless, the story of the response on the night was overall ‘overwhelmingly positive’, it finds.

The review praises GMP’s duty officer, who made a ‘life or death’ decision to keep first responders at the scene rather than evacuate in the face of a possible further attack.

It paints a picture of extraordinary heroism, including from British Transport Police, rail staff,

Arena security, paramedics and members of the public, who ran straight into danger despite not yet knowing whether the Arena’s foyer was safe to enter.

And it depicts in detail the experiences of victims and families - many of whom spoke directly to the review about the painful hours, days and weeks ●●The fire service’s response on the night of the Manchester Arena bombing was criticised but there was praise for the other emergency services that followed the atrocity, which claimed the lives of 22 people.

Their experiences include frustrations with delayed mental health treatment and press intrusion, set alongside praise for the way Manchester as a city rallied round in the bomb’s aftermath.

“The people of Manchester did a fantastic job of boosting the morale of those affected,” one relative told the review, “making us feel as though we were not alone.”

The report, set up by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham in the wake of the bomb, seeks to identify both the strengths and weaknesses in how the disaster was tackled.

The review, however, said it could make ‘no comment’ on whether the presence of fire crews at the scene earlier on the night ‘would have affected any casualty’s ‘survivability’, saying it would be a matter for a coroner at inquest.

Inquest hearings have been adjourned until June.

But the report said that had fire crews been deployed to rendezvous points ‘at the earliest opportunity’, the evacuation of casualties ‘could have been achieved more efficiently and possibly more rapidly’.

The report only focused on the response to the attack in the nine days that followed.