The Daily Star
LONDON —Tempers boiled over during the 7/7 rescues as one fireman threatened to drive an ambulance himself.
The fireman screamed at a medic: “Give me the f***ing keys and I will drive the f***ing ambulance.”
Firefighters clashed angrily with the first paramedic to arrive at Aldgate Tube station, where seven people were killed, after he refused to take seriously injured victims to hospital.
Medic Anthony Cumner said he was “incident officer” and had to stay at the scene.
Fire crews told him he needed to take wounded survivors, including Emma Brown who had severe shrapnel wounds to her stomach, to hospital for treatment.
Victims of the 7/7 attacks bled to death in bombed-out Tube carriages while paramedics treated the walking wounded above ground, it was claimed yesterday.
Suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer detonated his device on an eastbound Circle Line train at Aldgate at about 8.50am on July 7, 2005.
The revelations were made at the London inquest on 52 travellers killed in the four 7/7 blasts.
Mr Cumner and colleague Andrea Ray arrived about 20 minutes after the Aldgate explosion.
Mr Cumner wrote in debrief notes: “Firefighters insisted that we take a number of casualties at the station entrance. I declined.”
He added: “This was met by some hostility and panic from the firefighters, with comments such as: ‘Give me the effing keys and I will drive the effing ambulance’.”
Firefighter Sean Clarke said: “We are always taught to get people care as quickly as possible. We think the ambulance service are there to do that, too.”
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