On the eleventh day of the second phase inquiry into the deaths of 29 miners, Fire Service national manager of special operations James Stuart-Black, who advised authorities on the recovery effort, said it would not be right to focus on death while information from the explosion was still patchy.

“Having an appreciation that there may be mass fatalities is one source of information which will assist in developing specific response plans,” he said.

“In no way does that become the sole focus, because there were such significant gaps in the information space.

“It was a case of let’s keep an open mind, but let’s not ignore the fact that we could be dealing with this massive fatality situation.”

He backed the police despite himself believing that there would have been fatalities from the first blast.

“From a fire service point of view, we were of the opinion that we were dealing with a massive fatality situation right from the outset of this incident,” he said.

The evidence comes a week after assistant commissioner Grant Nicholls told the commission he believed men could still be alive after the initial explosion, drawing widespread criticism that he gave families and the public a sense of false hope.

“I thought that they could’ve survived and I held that view based on all the available information to me,” he told the inquiry.

Stuart-Black said that the police had a moral and professional responsibility to act on any “glimmer of hope” that there would be survivors.

The inquiry also heard that the decision to move from a rescue to recovery effort at the mine was a tough choice for the authorities.

“It’s a very definite statement to families … it is not like sitting in a lab in a sterile environment where you’re dealing with just ones and noughts,” he said.

“You’re dealing first and foremost with human life.”

With a bachelor degree in international disaster management, it was Stuart-Black’s combination of expertise and experience that led him to decide the mine was unsafe to re-enter, only minutes before the second blast.

After identifying an explosive range of methane to oxygen in the mine, he informed authorities at 2.15pm that no one was to go into the mine.

“Seven minutes later the mine exploded,” Stuart-Black said.

Stuart-Black dismissed the claim that a Mines Rescue team was about to re-enter the mine right before the second explosion, saying a team was never ready to go in because a risk assessment confirmed the mine was not safe.

Later in the day the court heard from Pike River Coal statutory mine manager Stephen Ellis, who revealed he was uncomfortable with being the first person to inform the families of the tragedy at the mine.

"I went and talked to the people, spoke that we were still finalising who was underground, that we were doing everything we could and I left and I was quite upset about that,” Ellis said.

Ellis said Pike River Coal chief executive officer Peter Whittall was driving in from Wellington, leaving him with the responsibility to advise family members.