A FIRE Service chief who led the emergency response operation on the day of last year's Primark fire has said he has "no doubt" staff at the discount clothing store "saved lives".
Aidan Jennings, Area Commander with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS), said the efforts made by Primark workers on August 28 last year to evacuate all customers and colleagues "completely changed" the focus of responding fire crews as they knew no-one was trapped in Bank Buildings.
He also revealed that Bank Buildings had been subject to annual fire safety checks before the blaze, and the NIFRS had "no issues" with the measures within the property.
Footage from 4pm:
Mr Jennings, who has been with the fire service for 24 years, described the blaze as the "largest incident" he has ever attended.
He was at Fire Service Headquarters in Lisburn when first reports of the blaze filtered through.
When requests for assistance and further resources were made, he made his way to Belfast.
"I could see the smoke plumes from the Applegreens (service station) on the motorway. It was clear to me we were dealing with a significant incident at that stage".
On arrival at the scene, the senior fire officer recalls seeing "large crowds" of people everywhere who were looking on in "shock and disbelief".
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"I could see firefighters making their way up the scaffolding on to the roof and the upper floors".
After receiving a "thorough briefing" from the incident commander, Mr Jennings assumed control of the operation.
He revealed that despite the scale and intensity of the blaze, only two firefighters were injured.
"Over the four days that followed, we had over 300 firefighters and 63 fire appliances attend the incident," he said.
Footage from 3pm:
"There were only two accidents to personnel on the ground. Thankfully no serious injuries."
The fire chief said there were a "number of specific challenges" including the availability of a sufficient water supply - at the height of the operation, NIFRS was using 25,000 litres of water per minute, which was made possible by establishing a supply from both the Farset and Lagan rivers.
The structure and age of the building was also a challenge with issues such as twisted steel work, floors collapsing and gas cylinders.
Mr Jennings said on the first day firefighters were inside Bank Buildings trying to tackle the blaze.
"Thankfully, we were able to prevent the fire spreading to (next door buildings) Anderson McAuley, Tesco and Commonwealth House.
"We were able to establish a fire break by putting firefighters within protective staircases where they had found a place of relative safety within the building."
He said: "One of the most notable points for me was in the afternoon, when the fire came through the clock face.
"We are the Fire Service but we are also the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland. We have a professional pride. When the fire breached the clock, the time stood still, literally for us. I could see the impact of that on our crews."
Mr Jennings paid tribute to all the agency partners who came together along with the fire service to deal with the blaze and its aftermath and all the fire personnel, including those who came from places outside Belfast to provide assistance.
He revealed NIFRS personnel, not dealing with the Primark fire, responded to more than 250 other emergency calls during the four days of the Bank Buildings blaze. These included on-call firefighters who had been released from their employment so they could go and provide cover.
NIFRS officially handed the building over to structural engineers on Friday, August 31 - four days after arriving on the scene.
Mr Jennings said in particular he wanted to "commend" the staff of Primark.
"I have no doubt their actions in evacuating the store saved lives that day and helped us," he said.
The fire commander said following an "extensive" investigation, the fire service had found that the blaze started "accidentally".
He added that the specific details of the cause were now part of an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive NI.
