Wiring sparked fire that killed doctor and family Parents and two daughters died on trip to Kazakhstan
ABIRMINGHAM couple and their two young daughters died in a flat fire in Kazakhstan caused by faulty electrical wiring, an inquest has heard.
Professor Elijah Kehinde and his hospital consultant wife Olufunmilola, aged 53, perished in the blaze alongside daughters Rachel, 17, and eight-year-old Grace.
The mother and daughters had been at the property for just two days when the fatal blaze broke out in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana on July 14 last year.
Olufunmilola – known as Funmi to friends and colleagues – from Augustus Road, in Edgbaston, was a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician. She had worked at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust.
Prof Kehinde had already been in Kazakhstan for a year, setting up a medical school at Nazarbayev University.
A Birmingham inquest was held last Thursday into the deaths of the mother and two daughters who had arrived in Astana on July 12.
A police report read out inquest revealed how the unfolded.
The fire started in the early hours in the living room of the flat, which was owned by the university and provided as temporary accommodation to Prof Kehinde .
The most probable cause was faulty electrical casing insulation.
There were two smoke detectors to the tragedy and a heat detector in the flat but it is not known if they went off.
Post-mortems revealed that the family died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Area Coroner Emma Brown told the tragic mother’s two sisters and cousin, who were at the hearing: “They may have been asleep and would probably not have woken up. They wouldn’t have had any awareness of the fire – they would have passed away peacefully.”
She recorded a conclusion that Mrs Kehinde and the two girls died as a result of an accident.
Tributes were paid to the family, including in a newsletter from the Aylestone Baptist Church in Leicester, where the family used to live.
“They worshipped with us here for a number of years before Funmi moved to Birmingham, where she was a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician,” the tribute read.
“Elijah was a professor of urology in Kuwait and had moved to Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan in 2016 to set up a top-rate medical school for the nation. This was a wonderful Christian family and so we have the comfort that they are now safe in the arms of Jesus.”