Ending the second phase of the Pike River inquiry into the deaths of 29 miners, Whittall said he found the fact he was never told about a fire burning in the mine as “embarrassing” because both the police and fire service knew of the fire.

While he did not have a direct role in the search and rescue mission he told the inquiry had met with police chief Gary Knowles twice a day.

“At no stage did I ever get told anything about any briefings coming from site,” Whittall said.

Whittall said because he was never told about a fire in the mine it was consequently never communicated to the families.

The inquiry heard just how alienated he was from what was happening at the mine when he was approached by a policeman who said: "The prime minister doesn't think you should be using the word 'heating', he doesn't see why you're not using 'fire'."

He thought it was “unusual” for the Prime Minister to have an opinion on whether or not there was a fire in the mine.

"I've since understood that briefings were going up through those channels, that there was a fire underground,” he said.

Whittall also revealed that Mines Rescue Service never told him that they believed all the men would have likely been killed in an instant after the blast.

“No one even intimated those words to me,” he said.

“I still to this day don't know what happened in the mine, but I had no reason to believe, categorically, that all the men were dead.”

Whittall then denied giving false hope to the families, blaming a lack of information for the reason he was optimistic at the chance of survival.

“I was dealing with the information that was being given to me … I was sharing my hope,” Whittall said.

He said he was not ignoring reality but was hoping for a miracle.

“My head still believed that there was a potential for someone to have survived beyond the first blast,” he said.

“If anyone had their tragic suffering made worse by thinking that I was giving false hope or the fact that I could've given a different story to what I genuinely believed myself, then I'm absolutely sorry that anyone else ever felt that.”

Criticisms from the families during the inquiry that he had edited CCTV footage of the blast so as to play down the significance of the explosion were denied by Whittall.

“I don’t even have the technical capability of editing a video like that,” he said.

He said he was given a memory stick by former Pike River coal general manager Doug White with the footage of the blast on it and played it to the families not knowing that it had been edited.

The footage of the portal explosion showed to the families was edited down from 52 seconds to 32 seconds.

Giving evidence as to how he broke the news of the second explosion to a crowd of 500 people brought Whittall to tears.

He described the day as “horrendous” and said he felt nauseous at the prospect of telling the crowd filled with family members of the 29 miners that all hopes for the men had now been lost.

He said he started to deliver the message by saying that he had been called up to the mine site because he had been told that MRS were ready to go underground.

“Suddenly several people cheered and clapped and then it was like a ripple effect through the room,” Whittall said.

“Everyone started to think that that was fantastic … I had no idea why people were cheering.”

He then had to quiet the room and inform them of the second explosion and that the miners would now most certainly be dead.

The inquiry heard he was not aware of a text that had been sent to the family members to attend the meeting and to expect good news.

He said he had deeply regretted the way he made that speech.

“I don't know how I could’ve said it differently, but gosh, there must be a 1000 ways of delivering that message that would’ve been more effective than that,” he said.

He said his biggest regret was that the families believed they were misled.

“I suppose my regret is that anyone could at any stage believe that I had anything other than the best intentions to tell the truth at all stages and to give the families all the support I could possibly do.”