Inquest into death of Preston brother and sister killed in tragic house fire halted

An inquest into the deaths of two children tragically killed in a Preston house fire last year has been halted.

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The hearing, which began at County Hall in Preston on Monday (January 8), was scheduled to last for four days.

But Area Coroner Chris Long suspended it at the end of day one over concerns about the way paramedics from the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) arrived on the scene after both police and firefighters.

The inquest was told that the call-out was initially rated as Category Two by call-handlers, before being upgraded later to Category One.

That meant the response time by ambulance crews was longer than it should have been.

Brother and sister, Louis and Desire Busuioc – aged 5 and 3 – tragically died after their home caught fire in Coronation Crescent, Preston

Coroner Long delayed the start of the inquest for more than an hour to check whether NWAS had legal support in court – Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, Lancashire Police and Lancashire’s North West Fire Control were all represented by barristers.

Then he delayed the afternoon session, again for more than an hour while he consulted with all the legal representatives in his chambers.

Finally he announced he would be halting the proceedings and would give NWAS seven days to supply more information about how they operated on the night of the fire. He will then set another date for the inquest to resume.

The decision follows concerns raised by the family of the children about the way emergency services responded on the night of the fire.

The badly damaged house in Coronation Crescent

The coroner was told police and fire experts investigating the tragedy found evidence the inferno had been started in a couch using a kitchen lighter.

School T-shirt left by one of the children’s friends with “To Louis, I will miss you” written on it

The children’s father later told police his partner had told him one of the children had come upstairs and told her there was a fire downstairs.

Det Chief Insp Rachel Higson, who was the senior investigating officer, said the evidence suggested a naked flame had been held against a settee in the lounge of the mid-terraced house in Coronation Crescent, Frenchwood.

There was no evidence of any third party involvement.

CCTV in the area did not show anything which suggested someone had entered the house and interviews with neighbours found nothing suspicious.

“There was no evidence of anyone (else) in that house at the time,” she told the coroner.

References

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