7/7 fireman: I lay awake wondering if I could have done more

Mick Ellis was station manager at a north London fire station and one of the first people on the scene of the fourth bomb, which was detonated on a No 30 bus.

His crew were fixing a pensioner's flooded flat when they received the call to go to the junction of Tavistock Square and Upper Woburn Place, near Euston station.

Mr Ellis said: "It was the longest walk of my life walking up to that bus and it looked like a war scene. It was very fortunate to have happened outside the BMA.

"This chap who looked like a City gent turned up in a very expensive suit. I said: "Who are you?" and he said he was one of the top UK surgeons for blast injuries."

Afterwards Blue Watch headed back to their Holloway station and reflected on events with an understated: "Are you okay, mate?"

Mr Ellis, from Hornchurch, then sought counselling. "Three months later I didn't feel quite right. I wasn't sleeping properly and just kept going over it, thinking could I have done anything different on the day or save someone I didn't."

After 20 years as a firefighter Mr Ellis is a staff officer for Ron Dobson, London's Fire Commissioner.