No one challenged chief fire officer Peter O'Reilly on the night of the Manchester Arena attack when he dispatched just 12 regular firefighters to the scene even though he wrongly believed they were trained to treat blast injuries, the public inquiry into the atrocity was told.
A team of just 12 regular firefighters - the number that would be deployed to a house fire - was sent to the arena, arriving at the scene at 39 minutes past midnight, more than two hours after the explosion.
Specialist crews, with better kit and training in how to treat blast injuries, were kept back.
The continuing public inquiry into the bombing heard evidence today (Tuesday) from a senior colleague of the then chief fire officer Peter O'Reilly about how tempers flared as bosses met at the fire service's command support room at its HQ in Swinton on the night of the May 2017 attack.
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Frustrated firefighters were at first dispatched to Philips Park fire station in Miles Platting three miles away from the arena over fears of a continuing Paris-style attack but were then ordered to Manchester Central fire station, just a few hundred metres from the Arena, where they were told to wait for a further 30 minutes.
But the inquiry has heard that Mr O'Reilly refused a request from fire service commander on the ground Ben Levy to send specialist firefighters, who are trained to cope in terror attacks and treat blast injuries, to the arena.
In the end only three engines carrying 12 regular firefighters were dispatched, arriving more than two hours after the blast.
Retired fire service group manager John Fletcher described how Mr O'Reilly became irked after a request had been made to dispatch specialist firefighters.
"He seemed to get quite angry," said Mr Fletcher.
He said the chief had said words to the effect of 'this is what I'm sending'.
The inquiry has heard that Mr O'Reilly, who had struggled to get information from GMP that night, called Steve Hynes, the deputy director of North West Ambulance Service who is said to have asked for 12 firefighters.
Police officers and paramedics were already at the scene.
Mr Fletcher said: "I'm trying to be fair to the chief. I don't know the detail of the conversation he had with Steve Hynes. He said 'send it in - send it in - we will lose the specialist response capability'.
"He was expecting there's probably going to be an escalation somewhere else."
In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Fletcher had said Mr O'Reilly had got angry and mistakenly thought all firefighters were 'trauma technicians' with more advanced medical training.
He told the inquiry no-one in the room challenged the fire chief even though he was incorrect.
"He was obviously angry at the way the response had been all night. That was the culmination," said Mr Fletcher.
Inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders said: "He was wrong and nobody told him he was wrong because he seemed to be getting angry?"
"Yes Sir," said Mr Fletcher.
Mr Fletcher continued: "At least we were sending someone down there but we felt the (specialist response teams) should have gone."
Pressed further by Sir John on whether someone in the room should have challenged Mr O'Reilly, Mr Fletcher said: "That's fair comment but it was just the atmosphere in the room that night. I felt it would have started another argument and it wouldn't have been helpful."
The witness agreed with Sir John that the 'overriding consideration should have been the protection of life'.
Asked how he felt in the aftermath, Mr Fletcher said: "Completely devastated. Everything we had put in place for this type of scenario, I thought we had really good capability. I thought the procedures were fine but it was just catastrophic. It just devastated me.
"I have never been in such a dark place in my life at the end of that night."
He agreed that a fire service debrief which took place in the days after the attack wasn't a proper debrief but merely an opportunity for people to blame each other.
In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Fletcher said he thought about it every day and that it was something he would 'never get over'.
He said lessons had been learned about the importance of 'concise accurate communication'.
The retired officer admitted computers in the command support room - which were supposed to be able to view CCTV cameras - didn't work properly and were 'a white elephant most of the time'.
Under questioning by John Cooper QC, on behalf of the bereaved families, Mr Fletcher denied that he was frightened of Mr O'Reilly.
The QC asked if he thought Mr O'Reilly was a bully.
Mr Fletcher said: "I never witnessed bullying towards myself but he can be quite strong with how he deals with people at times."
He said Mr O'Reilly was 'autocratic'.
The QC asked if this was another word for 'bully'.
The chairman Sir John interjected and the witness agreed 'bully' was an emotive term.
Pressed by the chair on whether he had seen Mr O'Reilly bullying anyone else, he said he could be 'quite strong with people who had disagreements with him'.
Mr Fletcher agreed Mr O'Reilly had 'got it wrong' on the night, wrongly believing regular firefighters were trained as trauma technicians.
"I thought we were in a really strong position to deal with this type of atrocity and it completely destroys me that we failed," he said.
He said the fire service was 'under a total misapprehension' and had not realised ambulances were already at the scene, a fact which would have hastened the arrival of firefighters.
The QC suggested that was the moment when regular firefighters felt let down by the bosses.
"We all felt let down about how we had responded to that incident," said Mr Fletcher.
Mr O'Reilly stood down and retired in September 2017, and later said he would 'always regret' the delay in firefighters attending the aftermath.
He went on, in media interviews, to lay blame at the door of the police. He is expected to give evidence later in the inquiry.
