Firefighter tells of horrors crew faced when called to 7/7 Tube blast

Rescue: Rick Ogden was in charge of a crew of four sent to the bombed carriage
Alex Lentati

A firefighter has described the horror that awaited him and his crew as they were called to Aldgate Tube station on the day of the 7/7 attacks.

Rick Ogden, borough commander of Lambeth, worked in darkness among the dead and dying to rescue victims after suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer detonated his rucksack device as part of the co-ordinated attack on London on July 7, 2005. Paralympic star Martine Wright was the last casualty his crew rescued from the carnage of the bomb, which killed seven people after exploding between Liverpool Street and Aldgate at 8.50am.

Mr Ogden, now 35, said: “About six minutes into our shift we heard over the radio ‘Initiate major incident procedure’, so we knew something really serious had gone down.

“We got there, got out and everyone was piling up out the stairs at Aldgate with blackened faces, streaming eyes and noses.

“We went down there, got on to the platform, walked into the tunnel. [It was] eerie, quiet, bizarrely a real scene of tranquillity. No screaming or shouting, just everyone working in this carriage.

“It was a pretty horrific scene. There were people that were dead, people that were dying, people that had lost limbs, people that had suffered catastrophic blast injuries, people that had been blown out onto the track.”

Mr Ogden was speaking of his experience to highlight London Fire Brigade’s role in the rescue operation on 7/7 as plans were announced today for the organisation’s 150th anniversary.

He helped co-ordinate rescue efforts in the carriage, prioritising casualties for London’s Air Ambulance doctors.

Ms Wright lost both legs and 80 per cent of her blood in the blast. Off-duty police officer Elizabeth Kenworthy used her belt as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding. Mr Ogden said: “Where the rucksack had gone off, that had caused the catastrophic injuries to knee-level and below where people were sat in their seats.”

On dealing with the trauma he had witnessed, he said his “tough-talking guvnor” saw him through. He added: “I don’t think there’s anything different I could have done, or would have had any different impact on the outcome.”

Watch Rick Ogden’s account of the 2011 London riots, with exclusive footage from inside the cordon.

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