Tribute to former Greater Manchester Deputy Chief Fire Officer Paul Argyl

As a young soldier he did tours of duty in Northern Ireland and later, as a senior officer, had to deal with the harsh consequences of the fire brigade’s much-criticised response to the Manchester Arena bombing. But a former colleague said of Paul Argyle today: “He was a nice guy and a professional firefighter.”

Mr Argyle, the former deputy chief fire officer of Greater Manchester, who has died aged 60 after a short illness, was well-liked within the service. Dave Russel, the service’s current Chief Fire Officer, said: “Paul was a valued and respected member of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service for over thirty years, known equally for his kindness and keen sense of public service.

“He has been an outstanding role model and mentor who has had a positive impact on the Greater Manchester community and many firefighters over the years. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.”

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Mr Argyle was awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal in 2018 for distinguished service.

Born in Chilwell, Nottingham, Mr Argyle served in Belfast and Germany with the Royal Green Jackets before joining Greater Manchester Fire Service in 1986, where he served until 2017, retiring as Assistant Chief Officer of firefighters. After joining the service in September 1986, his first posting was Whitefield, but he has worked at stations across the region. In 2015, he became deputy of the county fire department.

During this time he was proud to be Chair of the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum for a number of years.

After retirement, he continued to serve as Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Strategic Leader and Fire Advisor to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor until 2019. He has also been a Magistrate for the past three years, working one day a week, mostly in Wigan and Bolton. . He also became a keen golfer and played squash for his local club.

Paul is survived by his wife of 16 years, Alison Kelsall, two sons, aged 25 and 29, and two stepdaughters, aged 33 and 34.

While Deputy Chief Fire Officer he was in a team of firefighters from GMFRS and police officers from GMP who worked to raise thousands of pounds to support Retrack, to help save and improve the lives of street children in Uganda. At the time he said: “I am passionate about equality, people and also international relations and resilience.

“As well as fundraising, we will be using our time and annual leave allowance etc. to carry out a charity exercise ‘in country’ in Kampala to support the shelters for street children and of course the children who use the shelters”.

Chief Resilience Officer for Greater Manchester, Kathy Oldham, said: “I worked with Paul for many years during his time as part of the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum, where he represented GMFRS from 2011. Paul subsequently taught the forum from 2015 until 2019.

“In his role as Strategic Advisor to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to 2019, he worked alongside me as CRO to deliver the 100 Resilient Cities program and the United Nations’ Making Cities Resilient initiative, working with international and expert nationals to identify insights, solutions and lessons learned in other cities to help plan for similar issues here

“He also played a key role in supporting Greater Manchester following the horrific Manchester Arena attack in 2017 and during the subsequent Kerslake Arena Review. Paul was a hard worker and deeply committed to his role. He will be missed.”

After starting his career as a firefighter, he rose through the ranks and was second in command in May 2017 when 22 people were killed in the Manchester Arena bomb attack.

On the night of the atrocity, however, he was at a conference in Cancun, Mexico. Mr Argyle, as Deputy Chief Fire Officer, was responsible for encouraging all emergency services to work effectively together. But the subsequent public inquiry into the attack heard how that process failed in the night.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service did not go to the scene of the Salman Abedi suicide bombing until an hour after the last victims had been removed and two hours after the attack because they believed there was a terrorist incident in progress.

They were unable to reach Greater Manchester Police’s duty officer who was in charge of the operation and a joint meeting was held just six hours after the attack, the inquest was told. Mr Argyle was on holiday but attending a conference at the beach resort and only found out about the attack on social media or WhatsApp, he told a hearing.

The conference was organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and ran from 22 May, the day of the bombing, to 26 May. Mr. Argyle returned early from his trip to deal with the aftermath of the Manchester attack.

The conference had ended for the day and he lost his wi-fi connection when he was taken back to the hotel by bus, so it was 00:57, almost an hour and a half after the bomb went off, before he suggested setting up a strategic program. Coordination Group (SCG).

He got a text back from Chief Fire Officer Peter O’Reilly at 1.26am to say an SCG had been arranged for 2.30 and replied with a list of people he thought should attend. However, the meeting between senior police, ambulance and fire chiefs did not actually take place until 4.15am, nearly six hours after the attack.

Mr Argyle was chairman of an organization called the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum (GMRF), which was supposed to bring together the emergency services.

One of the forum’s roles was to encourage services to “co-ordinate together in an emergency or other event, in the likelihood of that producing a better outcome”, Paul Greaney QC, for the inquest, said.

This should have been done through an SCG held at police headquarters as early as possible, Mr Argyle told the inquest.

He said the aim should be to create one within two hours, but inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders said: “Rather a lot has happened in an incident like this, wouldn’t it be feasible to do it faster? “

Mr Argyle said: “Time can go quickly in an event or an incident, it can be less valuable in holding an SCG if they are not informed, what they need to do is add value.”

The inquest also heard no lessons were learned by GMRFS about a breakdown in communication between police and firefighters during a counter-terrorism training exercise a year before the attack, Mr Argyle admitted.

Exercise Winchester Accord was a ‘live’ exercise which took place on the night of 9 May 2016 at Trafford Shopping Centre. The exercise notably involved the establishment of a SCG at the request of the resilience forum, but the lessons on communication breakdown were not fed back.

In his evidence to the inquiry, Mr Argyle recalled a conversation he had with Mr O’Reilly in the days after the bombing.

The inquest was told that amid erroneous reports of gunfire and an “active shooter”, police declared Operation Plato, the bespoke response to a terrorist attack with firearms, but the force failed to inform the fire and ambulance service.

They were unable to contact the police officer on duty who made the statement and fire crews were detained as a result. Mr Argyle said Mr O’Reilly believed North West Fire Control, or an officer he had told, should have informed him of the atrocity sooner.

Asked about the lack of information, Mr Argyle added: “He wanted the information from Greater Manchester Police.” Nicholas de la Poer, counsel for the inquest, said: “What he communicated at that stage was that he was frustrated by elements of what happened on the night.” Mr. Argyle said, “Yes.”

A report by Lord Kerslake, published in March 2018, criticized the fire service’s response after the explosion, describing the failure of those at the top of the organization as “extraordinary” and “unbelievable”.