Young firefighter tells of terror

Cameron Grylls. Photo by NZPA.
Cameron Grylls. Photo by NZPA.
A young fireman has spoken of being terrified at seeing his boss, Derek Lovell, lying unresponsive, after being badly injured in the Hamilton fire disaster.

Cameron Grylls spoke as two other firefighters battled for their lives in hospital.

Mr Grylls (29) performed CPR on Mr Lovell and tended to six other injured colleagues when the coolstore was rocked by a massive explosion. He had been the driver of one of two fire trucks which attended an alarm callout at the coolstore.

‘‘I was outside and a couple of the guys were inside the building investigating what was going on,'' he said. ‘‘The next thing I knew the whole place had just blown up, with no warning.''

He was standing close to Mr Lovell and had hazy memories of the event.

‘‘I think I stayed on my feet but there was debris flying everywhere. I think there was a big fireball.''

He found Mr Lovell, who died later in hospital.

‘‘He'd been blown back a fair distance and I found him to be unresponsive and started CPR on him.''

Bystanders rushed to help.

‘‘[I] started putting in some radio messages for help basically, and started thinking about who else was missing and where they were and how to get them out.

‘‘They luckily came out in dribs and drabs by themselves . . . They managed to haul themselves out as far as they could and bystanders went in and helped them out the rest of the way.''

Mr Grylls said his injuries were ‘‘just superficial''.

Most of the firefighters were wearing protective clothing but another who was not came out when his clothing ‘‘blown off his back'', he said.

Firefighter Merv Neil was last night in Middlemore Hospital's burns unit where he was in a critical condition with burns to 60% of his body.

Brian Halford (36) underwent surgery yesterday and is in a critical condition in Waikato Hospital's intensive care unit.

Alvan Walker was in Waikato's high dependency unit. He had worked for the Huntly Volunteer Fire Brigade for four years before moving to the Hamilton station in 1995.

Other injured firemen, Dennis Wells and Adrian Brown, are also in Waikato Hospital's high dependency unit. Dave Beanland is in an open ward.

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