King Charles visited the town to meet survivors of the incident, with their families, before greeting representatives from fire, police and ambulance services and members of the community who rallied together in the aftermath.

All of the emergency services staff present were involved in the incident in a wide range of roles, including those who answered the original 999 calls, treated and transported patients and the subsequent police response and investigation.

Incidents of this type are thankfully rare, but the impact on everyone involved can be difficult and so the appreciation shown by The King during his visit was gratefully received by all.

North West Ambulance Service Deputy Chief Executive, Salman Desai, who was present at the meeting, commented: “It was a great honour to meet His Majesty and I was very pleased to be able to introduce our frontline staff to him. There are many different elements to responding to an incident of this nature and so it was important that all the different roles within the trust had the opportunity to attend today. We had colleagues from our call centres, clinical staff, including on scene doctors, North West Air Ambulance and our specialist hazardous area response team (HART) attend the scene, and do what they do best, providing emergency care and comfort to those who needed their help.  As always, our thoughts are very much with the families who lost loved ones and those who are still recovering. It is a day that sadly, we will never forget.”

Chief Fire Officer, Phil Garrigan said: “We were very fortunate to welcome His Majesty to Southport Fire and Ambulance Station today to give him an understanding of the multi-agency teamwork that is involved in the response to any emergency incident, particularly one as challenging and tragic as the one they faced. I thank him for taking time out of his busy diary to thank all the responders personally. I know that my Fire Control team and firefighters acted quickly and that they did everything in their power to help those involved. I cannot ask for anything more. My firefighters live in the communities they serve and I know the tragic events they witnessed will stay with them forever, but that is why they joined – to protect the public even in the most challenging of circumstances. As an integral part of the Southport community, our thoughts go out to the families directly affected and all those involved. We continue to be there for them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter what.”  

Merseyside Police, Deputy Chief Constable, Chris Green said: “It was an honour to welcome His Majesty’s visit to Southport today and thank him for the support and compassion he has shown to the families and the wider community affected by this tragic incident.  It was a privilege for our Officers and staff to meet the King and to receive his sincere thanks and recognition for what they did under the most difficult of circumstances on the 29^th July 2024.  I am incredibly proud of the actions of all officers and staff from across the force and our thoughts continue to be with those still recovering and the families of Alice, Bebe and Elsie Dot.  Together with our partners we will do everything we can to support them through this difficult time and beyond.”