Paramedic ‘didn’t think twice’ about entering the blast zone
A SPECIALIST paramedic said she ‘didn’t think twice’ about entering the blast zone at Manchester Arena, despite knowing it hadn’t been declared safe.
Lea Vaughan, then a North West Ambulance Service Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) paramedic told the inquiry yesterday that pre-determined protocols for major incidents didn’t work on the night because the fire service weren’t there.
She said she was told the City Room, where the bomb detonated, hadn’t been declared ‘safe’ and there were reports of an ‘active shooter.’
Patrick Ennis, a NWAS advanced paramedic, was the only paramedic in the City Room for 44 minutes after the explosion.
Mr Ennis was joined by Ms Vaughan and HART paramedic Christopher Hargreaves at 11.15pm, but only those three treated casualties in the City Room.
Six HART operatives were on the scene but only two went into the ‘hot zone.’
Ms Vaughan said: “Being a HART paramedic, you go that one step further. If you don’t put yourself in that situation, it’s the wrong job for you.
“I personally didn’t think twice about it. I didn’t question whether or not we should go in.”
Ms Vaughan said it took her 20 minutes to get to the rendezvous point.
“All I could see were swarms of people, mainly young girls that appeared upset, some hysterical and comforting each other.”
Ms Vaughan, at 11.14pm, was captured on CCTV climbing stairs to the City Room with paramedic Mr Hargreaves - seven and a half minutes after she arrived on scene. Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked her whether it was ‘good enough’ that only three paramedics were in the City Room.
Ms Vaughan said: “I can only answer for the time that I had entered into the City Room, I can’t really comment on before we got there. By the time that we had got in, myself, Chris and Paddy [Mr Ennis] had a really efficient system working and I don’t believe that further paramedics would have been of any help at that point.”
The inquiry has previously heard Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service didn’t attend the Arena until more than two hours after the explosion, and that police officers and members of the public used advertising hoardings as makeshift stretchers.