House fire that killed two young children was 'accidentally started by one of the youngsters'

The deaths of two young children in a fire at their home was "a tragic and devastating accident", a coroner has concluded.

Louis Busuioc, five, and his little sister Desire, three, both died just days after being rescued from a huge fire at their home in Coronation Crescent in Preston.

The blaze happened after the children had been playing with a lighter, catching the sofa alight, the inquest found.

Emergency services were called to the house after a neighbour spotted a fire in the front living room at 7.52pm on 8 April 2022.

The two children had been upstairs with their mum, Lorena, who was asleep, while their Dad Lucian was at work, the inquest was told.

The inquest heard the children used a coat hanger to unlock the bedroom door and go downstairs, it is thought one of them then began playing with a lighter, which accidentally set fire to the sofa.

The house was quickly overcome with smoke and heat and when Lorena was woken by the sound of the smoke alarm she desperately tried to push her children out of an upstairs window.

The terrified children refused and so Lorena climbed out of the window first in the hope of pulling them out after her.

Several neighbours made a makeshift platform to try and reach Lorena and begged her to jump from the window ledge. Believing that someone would then go and rescue her children Lorena jumped to safety.

When firefighters arrived shortly afterwards they "put their own lives at risk" and "disregarded protocol" in an effort to rescue the two children.

However, by the time they were pulled out of the house, both had suffered an "unsurvivable" brain injury.

Dr Adam Nicholls, a consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, told the inquest that by the time the children were rescued from the house "the damage had been done".

He said "We see very few children who make it to intensive care following smoke inhalation," Dr Nicholls said.

"The damage is done even before children can be removed from a house fire. My personal feeling is that nothing would have altered the outcome for these children unfortunately."

The inquest heard from many police officers, paramedics and firefighters who dealt with the chaotic scene at Coronation Crescent on the evening.

Area Coroner Chris Long concluded that although there had been some delay to the deployment of paramedics, arriving sooner would "not have made any difference", given Dr Nicholls' evidence, and he praised the emergency services for their efforts in trying to save the children.

"Whilst I have found some elements of the response were not as they should have been I have not found that any of those elements have contributed to death," he said.

"The response from the fire and rescue service was incredibly swift. Had it not been for the bravery and courage of the firefighters who attended and who put their lives at risk it is likely that the children would not have been rescued when they were."

"I have not found the fault of any individual or organisation has contributed to the deaths in any way. What occurred was a tragic and devastating accident."

The coroner also ruled that the fire had been started, accidentally, by one of the children. However, he added that "an inquest is not about attributing blame".

He added: "Children experiment. I am sure many in the courtroom will remember being told by their parents not to play with matches or indeed saying that as a parent.

"Experience is, of course, how we learn. Here the children had been warned about playing with lighters but, I repeat, children experiment, and given the evidence I have outlined I am satisfied that the fire was started by one of the children with the lighter.

"There is however no evidence whatsoever that this was done intentionally to set fire to the house. They did not appreciate the risk that the sofa could catch fire in the way that it did.

"They did not intend it to catch fire. In short, they accidentally set fire to the sofa, which led to the fire starting."

Returning a conclusion of accidental death, the coroner said that both children "died on 11 April 2022, at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in Manchester as a result of hypoxic ischemic brain injury caused by smoke inhalation as a result of a fire".