Firefighters criticise bosses claiming they ‘held them back’ from responding to Manchester attack

Firefighters have hit out at bosses and accused them of holding them back from responding to the Manchester suicide bombing until 90 minutes after the incident. Crew members were left “emotional and shaken” by being made to wait to attend the scene at Manchester Arena where 22 people were killed and dozens seriously injured, a union official has revealed. 20 firefighters manning five fire appliances responded to the bombing on Monday evening, but not until more than an hour after they first received alerts about the 10.33pm attack. “The people I spoke to on Tuesday were emotional and shaken, but more by the fact they had been delayed than by what they had seen,” said Gary Keary, Brigade secretary for the Fire Brigades Union. “Once we did mobilise, our crews did everything they could. “But there’s an obvious question mark about why there was such a delay,” he said. There are 41 fire stations in Greater Manchester and 56 emergency vehicles, making the Greater Manchester Fire Brigade one of the largest in the country.