‘Nightmare journey’ delayed senior firefighter’s response to Manchester Arena bomb, inquiry told

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. While the drive from Mr Berry’s home in the Wigan area to Philips Park would normally take 35 minutes with blue lights on, he said he was “significantly hampered” by a number of roadworks causing the trip to instead last 56 minutes. open image in gallery Berry chose to meet colleagues at Philips Park Fire Station, three miles away from the arena The inquiry heard how, during his journey, Mr Berry repeatedly tried without success to contact Greater Manchester Police’s force duty officer, the initial commander of the incident, and also took calls from colleagues as he told them about his “nightmare journey”. Asked what he would have done then if he had that information, Mr Berry said: “Well, we would have quite clearly deployed probably straight to the Arena, proceeding with caution.” Mr Berry also agreed that, had he remained at home, where he had access to work logs on his computer, he would have gained earlier situational awareness and again deployed to the scene earlier. Mr Greaney put it to the firefighter that an “extraordinary feature” of what went wrong on the night was that he and senior colleagues lacked situational awareness but firefighters waiting on the ground at Philips Park knew what was happening.