When things go wrong, we want to be able to trust and rely upon our emergency services to lend a helping hand. That's exactly what happened a year ago at Babbs Mill Lake. Police, Fire and Ambulance services responded to an incident involving four young children. We spoke to some of those first on the scene here when tragedy struck.
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00:00 One of the most difficult decisions I made on that day, along with my colleagues from
00:07 the ambulance service and also the police service as well, was the decision to move
00:12 from that there was saveable life, so search and rescue, to it was unlikely that if there
00:19 was anybody else in the water that they would be saveable.
00:26 In an emergency situation like what happened here at Babs Mill Lake a year ago, every moment
00:31 counts towards saving lives. When Finn, Jack, Sam and Thomas' bodies hit the water, they
00:36 would have gone into cold shock, with the cold water draining their body temperature
00:40 four times as quickly as cold air. Highly trained and kitted out, first responders leapt
00:46 into action.
00:47 What was that sort of emergency response like? A lot of praise for the fire service and the
00:52 police as well, and the ambulance service of course.
00:54 Yeah, I mean, you know, we were getting regular updates from the fire brigade were really
00:59 leading on the incident in the main part after the police had arrived. You know, they were
01:05 really good at sending updates, you know, the photographs just told the story really.
01:10 I mean, there were so many firemen, you know, working throughout the night.
01:15 Even on a day like today, windy and cold, it's difficult to imagine just how freezing
01:20 the lake behind me must have been, both for the boys who fell in and the emergency services
01:24 staff who sought to save them. Rescue teams heroically went against medical advice, made
01:30 their own risk assessment and formed a human chain from the bank of the lake across the
01:35 treacherous ice to try and reach the location where it was thought the boys had gone under.
01:40 When we started to piece together what the initial crews had done, you know, we recognised
01:45 that whilst the public may have, you know, and rightly so, an expectation that emergency
01:52 service workers will place themselves at risk, you know, when attending an incident, that
01:57 what the crews did, the initial crews that went into the water did that day, went beyond
02:03 what that expectation would be.
02:06 After the incident, 14 police officers were handed bravery awards and 15 firefighters
02:11 were awarded Chief Fire Officer's Commendations. But along with the awards on the shelf, those
02:15 involved also carry with them pain at the outcome.
02:19 People sometimes see the uniform and think that that's sort of a blocker to any sort
02:23 of emotional connection you might have to that incident and the impact. But the reality
02:29 is all emergency service workers, myself and the crews, we're only human at the end of
02:34 the day and we still go home to families and friends, you know, and have the same feelings
02:39 as everybody else.
02:40 Amid a sea of tributes for the boys and for their families, came an outpouring of praise
02:46 for those who spent gruelling hours trying to save them. Senior Coroner Louise Hunt said
02:51 she was satisfied emergency services did their utmost, that treatment in hospital was good
02:56 and everyone did all they could and should be commended for their actions.
03:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]