Manchester firefighters 'felt shame' at being held back

The inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing has heard from a fire office who said that he ‘felt ashamed to be a firefighter’ after being held back from responding to the Manchester Arena bombing.

Duty command officer Alan Topping said firefighters felt ‘anger’ about the decision that stopped the first fire engine arriving at the scene until two hours after the explosion that killed 22 people.

On the night of the attack, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) crews were sent to a fire station a mile away from the scene of the bombing. Topping, who was a group manager for GMFRS, said he was shocked when he found ‘a lot of firefighters hanging around, some lying down’ at the fire station.

He also told the inquiry that he attended a de-briefing after the attack where some firefighters turned their backs on a senior officer who had been unable to explain why they had been held back.
The inquiry has heard previously that police declared a marauding terrorist firearms attack amid erroneous reports of gunfire but failed to inform the fire and ambulance services and none of the three blue light services met at a rendezvous point to discuss a planned response.

Topping, who worked for GMFRS for 32 years, said he did not believe that things within the service had improved sufficiently when he retired in September.