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Manchester Arena bombing: Fire chief blames police for delayed response to terror attack

Retired Peter O’Reilly says he will 'always regret' fire crews did not reach attack site for two hours

Tom Barnes
Tuesday 21 August 2018 08:08 BST
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Police officers at the Manchester Arena bomb scene
Police officers at the Manchester Arena bomb scene

Police were to blame for the delay in firefighters attending the scene of the Manchester Arena bombing, which left 22 dead and hundreds injured, the former head of the city's fire service has said.

Peter O’Reilly was chief fire officer at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) on the night of the attack.

A report by Lord Kerslake published in March was critical of its actions after the 22 May 2017 blast, describing its failure as “extraordinary” and “incredible”.

Firefighters only arrived on the scene two hours after the attack had taken place, despite some crews being stations close enough to hear the bomb itself.

Speaking for the first time publicly about the incident, Mr O’Reilly criticised Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

The Belfast-born former fire chief told The Irish News he would “always regret” crews were unable to reach the arena earlier after being left in an “information vacuum”.

He accused the police force of not following established protocols.

Amid reports of a possible “active shooter” at the scene, Mr O'Reilly said police did not liaise with fire and ambulance officials to help them assess the threat level and deploy resources effectively.

“I have no doubt that had proper protocol and policies been followed, the firefighters of GMFRS would have been at the Manchester Arena within minutes of the bomb exploding,” he said. “For me, I will always regret that the fire service weren’t there within minutes."

He added: “Every one of these firefighters was trained to help these people in their darkest hours and that was taken away from the fire service to be able to do that.”

Damaged by the fallout of the brigade’s response to the tragedy, Mr O’Reilly, now 51, retired from his post earlier this year on the first day on which he was able to claim his pension.

Lord Kerslake's report concluded the fire service was left “outside of the loop” of the police and ambulance emergency response and “strategic oversights” by police commanders led to confusion with other 999 services over whether an “active shooter” was on the loose.

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his home-made device, in the foyer of Manchester Arena as 14,000 people left the venue at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.

Armed police and 12 ambulances were on the scene within 20 minutes but there was a shortage of stretchers to ferry the injured from the foyer to a casualty area on the station concourse.

The panel of experts who authored the report were unable to conclude whether earlier arrival of the fire service would have “affected any casualty's survivability”.

While a joint strategic co-ordinating group of emergency response services and others gathered at GMP headquaters in east Manchester, Mr O'Reilly focused his senior officers at their own base in Salford, which played a “key role” in delaying the response further, the report concluded.

GMP has so far declined to issue a response to Mr O’Reilly’s comments.

Additional reporting by PA

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