Lack of aid at Hillsborough beggared belief says firefighter

Players make their way back to the dressing rooms as fans try to escape at Hillsborough in 1989

Anthony O’Keefe, a Liverpool fan, had left his seat and gone on the pitch to help victims, as 96 supporters were crushed to death on the Leppings Lane terrace of Sheffield Wednesday’s stadium as the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest got underway on April 15, 1989.

But Mr O’Keefe, who had been with London Fire Brigade for three years at the time of the Hillsborough match and helped with the King’s Cross rail disaster, said he was “amazed” at the lack of response from emergency services at the Sheffield stadium.

Mr O’Keefe, who gave evidence at the inquest in his London Fire Service uniform, said that after the match was abandoned he left his seat in the stand above the Leppings Lane terrace and made his way to the pitch.

He added: “I was dumbfounded, the fact that by the time I got on the pitch, it was enough time to get some emergency response.”

Mr O’Keefe revealed while there, he saw a local firefighter in uniform with an oxygen cylinder.

He added: “I asked him, I said, ‘Where are all the firefighters?’ He said a phrase, something like, ‘there’s 10 or 12 appliances outside, they think there’s a major riot going on’. By then it was getting really frustrating.”

Mr O’Keefe said when he first got on the pitch he had been given a green First Aid armband by a St John’s Ambulance man and told, “Go and see what you can do.”

The witness added: “What I witnessed was something unbelievable. There was so many that was in need of care I felt so isolated. There’s people lying all over this pitch and a line of police officers right across the middle and some police officers here helping with fans.

“This should not be happening, there should be some more response. I don’t think all the time I was there, there was no great organisation. I would not want to use swear words but it was absolute chaos.

“It just beggars belief. I was just amazed at the lack of emergency response.”

Earlier the inquest jury heard from Stephen Curry, who was the chief football writer for the Daily Express and reporting on the match from the press box in the main stand at the game.

Mr Curry, a sports journalist for 27 years at the time, was asked about police reaction as it became apparent disaster was looming.

Mr Curry replied: “Well there did not seem to be any. I was actually shouting in the press box, ‘Open the gates!’ Yet nobody opened the gates. I just could not understand it.”

The hearing was adjourned until today.