Atherstone on Stour Fire - Families Press Conference Thursday 31 May 2012: Julie Reid

Statement Made by Julie Reid, widow of Ian Reid

Julie Reid was accompaied by their daughter Sophie

I am devastated that the jury returned a not guilty verdict in court, but realise I have to accept their decision.

The three original defendants were portrayed as experience firefighters and incident commanders and their crews defended them as so. If their crews were so confident in their abilities as Incident Commanders and were so confident of the decisions made on that fateful night why then did those firefighters not have the courage of their convictions to ‘tell it like it was that night’ when questioned by the police or when taking the witness stand.

Why would they not want to tell the truth about that night and why would the three defendants not want to give their accounts.

Yes they had a legal right to say nothing but where were the qualities of the firefighter, the courage, the integrity?

The Incident Commanders and Warwickshire firefighters should hang their heads in shame. All I ever wanted was to know what happened that night and have questions answered, but I don’t feel that has happened.

I need to understand why successive BA crews entered the building but gained nothing. They were no nearer to tackling or indeed finding the fire due to excessive heat and smoke to floor level which was evident in the fire compartment after the first BA crew entered the building. What did they gain or find out from the second and third , the fateful fourth BA crew and the fifth BA crew entries that they didn’t have from the first entry.

Why could they not see that they were achieving nothing and that until the conditions were improved in the fire compartment they would never be able to tackle this fire offensively.

The three defendants have admitted that they made mistakes on 2nd November. Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service personnel must know that mistakes were made on that night. The Fire Brigade Union must know what mistakes were made on that night. I do believe that whilst all three defendants were experienced firefighters, I do not believe that they were sufficiently experienced as Incident Commanders and certainly did not possess the ability to look at the wider picture.

They lacked the experience to say ‘withdraw BA crews, let’s re-assess, revisit the information provided to us and rethink our strategy.

In fire fighting terms WFRS is ‘sleepy hollow’ and whatever the logical difficulties I would like to see a programme of changes for Incident Commanders to larger brigades in order that they may receive a broader spectrum of incidents.

Over the past year I have witnessed disgraceful behaviour from some Warwickshire firefighters and that is from the top down. As to the recent talk from senior figures in the WFRS that firefighters should be able to go about their work without fear of prosecution I say this.

We are all accountable for our actions, even the police. No one is above the law. We have a legal process in this country and if the police suspect a crime has been committed they are duty bound to investigate and pass their findings to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The legal process will determine whether charges should be brought, not the profession of an individual. The jury could not find guilt IN THIS CASE. But if this case makes incident commanders take one extra minute to assess the situation presented on arriving at an incident then that can only be for the good. A firefighter’s life is not worth less than that of a member of the public and it most certainly is not worth a pallet of packing material.

I do acknowledge that the defendants and their families have had a difficult year with this hanging over their heads but it is nothing compared to the heartache that Sophie and I have suffered for four and a half years. I lost my husband, who I loved very much and Sophie lost the dad she adored. Our heartache and loss is permanent.

Why does Warwickshire Chief Fire Officer Smith think this case should not have gone to court? Does he not think that where the evidence is there, action should be taken. Is he really that arrogant and small minded to think that firefighters are above the law?

Ian has been a retained firefighter for over four years and a whole time firefighter for three weeks. It was a job he loved and it saddens me that the men Ian respected are the very same men that let him down.

ends

A video of the statement by Julie Reid has been published on YouTube:

Atherstone-on-Stour fire:victims' families speak out - Julie & Sophie Reid http://youtu.be/GGI3ORGqcEY