Firefighter says he has never witnessed anything like Omagh bomb in 30 years

One of the first firefighters to respond to the Omagh bombing said he has never witnessed anything in three decades which comes close to the scenes of devastation on the day.

Paddy Quinn told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry that he has never revealed to his wife what he witnessed on the day, and for years avoided returning to the site.

The inquiry at the Strule Arts Centre in the Co Tyrone town is continuing to hear personal statements from witnesses and people affected by the Real IRA bombing in August 1998.

The public inquiry was set up by the Government to examine whether the explosion, which killed 29 people, including the mother of unborn twins, could have been prevented by the UK authorities.

Mr Quinn was a part-time firefighter on the day of the bombing and is currently temporary district commander for the Omagh district in the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

He told the inquiry that he and his colleagues did not speak much to each other after they had attended the explosion.

He said: “It seemed they just wanted to go back to their families, to be with their families.”

Mr Quinn added: “Until I wrote this personal statement, my wife had not known what that day was.”

Referring to the impact on his colleagues, he said: “Some of the firefighters had far worse experiences than me.

“A firefighter from another station lost a member of his family.

“Some to this day still need support for what they experienced.”

Mr Quinn said he had avoided the Market Street area in the Co Tyrone town, where the car bomb exploded, for years.

He said: “I couldn’t drive it, I couldn’t walk it.

“I would go right round the town, no matter where I was and enter through George’s Street and down past the courthouse to avoid it.

“People had died there, people were injured there. I couldn’t walk over it, I couldn’t drive over it.”

He said his wife had eventually encouraged him to return to the scene.

He said: “One day she managed to get me to walk it. I imagined where we worked was a lot longer, it was very short, a short distance. That surprised me.

“I remembered that every time I avoided it, I remembered the day and the scene.

“But even now that I can drive and walk it, I still remember as I walk past it. My mind goes back to that day.”

Mr Quinn told the inquiry that he has now trained as a critical incident stress management facilitator, to help other firefighters deal with trauma.

He said: “Now I regularly help others, so they can understand the emotional trauma and stress they have experienced and help them with that.

“I am using my experience to help them.”

He said: “My experience of the Omagh bomb, along with other incidents, helped me to support and understand others who may have been impacted by attending incidents that have the potential to cause emotional trauma.”

Mr Quinn added: “In these 29 years I have attended many tragic and horrendous incidents, but nothing I have responded to since the Omagh bomb has ever come anywhere close.”

Inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull said: “The tasks which you and your colleagues attended to on that day must have placed an intolerable strain on each of you.

“I think that is obvious from the fact you have retained such vivid and upsetting memories, even after all the years that have passed.”