Amy Welch: Why former fire chief said sorry for Arena failings

Greater Manchester's former chief fire officer Peter O'Reilly has made a personal apology to the families of the bereaved for his failings on the night of the Arena attack.

It was two hours and six minutes before firefighters arrived. Mr O’Reilly said during his evidence to the inquiry this week that they could and should have been there within four minutes and that it was a “gross failing.”

• Why has Peter O’Reilly said sorry?

Peter O’Reilly, who retired nine months after the attack, says he was told there had been an explosion at 23:08 - that's 37 minutes after it happened.

He says he wasn’t initially told there had been a bomb and wrongly assumed regular firefighters had already been deployed.  He arrived at the fire command support room at 23:49 and described the "absolute shock and bewilderment" he felt when he turned on the tv and realized that the ambulance service was there but his officers were not.

Mr O’Reilly told the inquiry decisions had already been made that he didn’t agree with.

He said North West Fire Control should have immediately deployed firefighters to the scene.

However, they instead contacted Andy Berry, a senior firefighter who was the duty NILO that night (National Inter-agency Liaison Officer).

He made the decision to send firefighters to Philip’s Park fire station, three miles away from the Arena, a decision Mr O’Reilly didn’t agree with.

Mr O’Reilly later admitted that it was an “absolute failure of mine” that he didn't then deploy crews directly to the Arena himself.

He said he “instinctively” tried to get more information “and that caused a delay which I will regret for the rest of my life.”

Mr O’Reilly defended his decision to only send 12 regular firefighters to the Arena, the same number that would go to a house fire, saying that was the number requested by the Ambulance service.  

The inquiry has previously heard how several senior firefighters disagreed with this decision and wanted him to send specialist firefighters who had special training for terrorist attacks.

When fire crews did eventually arrive at the Arena at 00:36, they were held back from entering for a further 13 minute while on-scene commander Andy Berry rang Mr O’Reilly to seek his approval to deploy. He was worried it wasn’t safe.

• Does Peter O’Reilly blame the police for the breakdown in communication?

Mr O'Reilly said the principal reason why crews were delayed on the night of the bombing was "communications or lack thereof" which left the fire service making decisions in an "information vacuum."

They couldn’t get hold of Greater Manchester Police and weren’t told that Operation Plato had been declared, the pre-planned response to a marauding terrorist firearms attack.

He told the inquiry that he sent a text to the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Ian Hopkins, at 23:21 but admitted it was a mistake not to call him.

In a meeting with police and fire chiefs the following morning Mr O’Reilly admitted not telling the Prime Minister about the communication problems and fire service delay.

He said he didn’t deliberately hold information back, but was aware that the police and fire service had different opinions about what had happened and therefore didn’t feel that it was the appropriate time to discuss those failings.

• Has anyone else apologised?

On Wednesday another senior fire officer apologised to bereaved families for what he described as a "woeful and unacceptable" response to the Manchester Arena bombing.

Assistant county fire officer David Keelan said the service was sorry it took crews more than two hours to get to the scene on 22 May 2017. 

The inquiry heard Mr Keelan was off duty on the night of the attack. He had returned home from dinner and saw events unfolding on the television news, the inquiry heard.

He told the hearing how he was due to be relieving the chief fire officer, Peter O'Reilly, from his shift either later that night or early the next morning.

After speaking with colleagues over the phone, Mr Keelan said he then went to bed - but not to sleep.

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Mr Keelan if he would wholeheartedly reject criticism for him taking a rest.

Mr Keelan replied: "Yes, sir. I needed to be ready for what I might have to do later on that morning."

The inquiry continues.