David Collins’s article on the emergency services response to the Manchester Arena bomb made for sad reading (“The lost two hours”, News, last week). Alas, for me, as a former firefighter, it was not surprising.
There seems to be a greater concern about the reputational damage of a corporate manslaughter charge (should a member of the service be killed) than about letting a member of the public die. Hypercautious officers appear to have no sense that there are occasions when real, acute risks that cannot be mitigated need to be faced — and faced immediately.
We need a culture change — back to a time when we knew we had joined services that sometimes required us to take a real risk with our own lives, and that this obligation went with the territory.
John Wilson
Group Commander (retired), Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, Craigavon, Co Armagh