By EMS1 Staff
MANCHESTER, England — A recent report found that poor communication about the status of the scene resulted in firefighters being kept away from the Manchester Arena bombing that killed 22 people last May for more than two hours.
The report by Senior British civil servant Bob Kerslake revealed that fire crews were “out of the loop” and thought the attacker was still at large, resulting in “a valuable resource not available to assist at the scene.”
The report said that a Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service senior fire officer “stuck to the rules” and kept firefighters 1,600 feet away from the scene while paramedics were already treating victims.
The fire officer was also reportedly unable to reach officials, resulting in the department being “brought to the point of paralysis.”
Kerslake said lives were saved by a police inspector’s decision to override protocol and allow emergency responders to treat the wounded.
Fire officials “felt they had let down the people of Greater Manchester,” according to the report.
Kerslake added in the report that “not one single reason or one individual” was at fault in the communication errors, but that it was a “most unfortunate combination” of “poor communication and poor procedures.”
“The firefighters wanted to go forward but they were not able to. The discipline of the fire service meant that they could not self-deploy,” Lord Kerslake said.
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