The fire chiefs afraid of danger
Manchester bomb victims faced 2-hour wait for help – because boss in charge was ‘averse to risk’
VICTIMS of the Manchester Arena bombing were forced to wait two hours for help from firemen after ‘risk-averse’ chiefs kept them away, a report found yesterday. As ambulances flooded to the scene, blundering fire bosses moved officers to a station three miles away because they feared a marauding terrorist was still on the loose.
Because phone lines were blocked, no one was sent to the bombed venue to see what was needed. Frustrated crews were left to watch events unfold on television.
The error by management potentially delayed the evacuation of critically injured fans in the aftermath of last May’s attack.
Other alarming revelations made in Lord Kerslake’s report include:
Manchester’s chief fire officer Peter O’Reilly was allowed to retire last month with a £100,000-a-year pension after going on sick leave last September;
Paramedics allowed casualties to be carried out on improvised stretchers made from merchandising tables or metal barriers because the ones carried in ambulances were too complicated to use;
A ‘catastrophic’ failure by Vodafone, which was responsible for setting up a hotline for worried families, meant many had to frantically contact hospitals themselves for news of loved ones.
Twenty-two people died and more than 500 were injured after suicide bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at 10.31pm on May 22 last year.
Yesterday’s report concluded that had firemen been at the scene sooner, the evacuation of injured fans ‘could have been achieved more efficiently and possibly more rapidly’ – although it could not say for certain if more would have survived.
Accusing the brigade of being ‘out of the loop’ and succumbing to ‘paralysis’, Lord Kerslake said it had shown ‘apparent risk aversion and unwillingness to deploy’.
In the aftermath of the attack, fearing a marauding shooter was on the loose, the senior fire officer on duty stuck to rules which dictate keeping emergency responders 500 metres away from any suspected danger zone.
He was unable to get through on the phone to his police counterpart to check what was actually