Did logburner start fire that killed family?
A FIRE that killed a Scots father and five of his children may have been started by a single stray ember from a log burner, an inquest heard yesterday.
David Cuthbertson, 68, and the youngsters died when a blaze ravaged their 200-year-old rented farmhouse, near the village of Llangammarch Wells in Mid Wales.
Three of his children – Leaf Raine, 13, Blue Raine, 12, and Farr Raine, 11 – escaped the midnight blaze unharmed and banged on neighbours’ doors screaming for help.
There were reports their father saved them by dropping them from a window.
Tragically, the retired builder died along with Just Raine, 11, Reef Raine, ten, Misty Raine, nine, Patch Raine, six, and Gypsy Raine, four.
The house was reduced to a smouldering shell after the tragedy on October 30 last year. Investigators said they had never seen a blaze of such ferocity.
Police spent more than half a million pounds investigating the inferno, which was so hot it melted copper piping. But yesterday’s inquest heard the cause will never be known.
Investigators believe the fire began in the lounge, where a stray ember may have leapt from the log burner onto nearby furniture.
Chief fire investigator David Hancock told the hearing in Welshpool: ‘We believe the origin of the fire to be in the downstairs lounge. We were fairly confident but it is very difficult to totally identify one particular item that was the cause of the fire.
‘In that room, we found a number of possible sources – use of candles, cigarette lighter for example. It is possible a spark or ember from the log burner had jumped onto furnishings. There was no spark guard as such.
‘The fire service were called at 12.11am and arrived 12.25am. By about 1.30am the building has collapsed in on itself.’
Mr Cuthbertson’s son, Robin Terry, said the farmhouse was poorly maintained.
He said: ‘It was a farmhouse that had not been well looked after before Dave took it over.
‘There were gas bottles used for the cooker kept outside the property. The water boiler was kept on all the time.
‘There had been a smell of gas at the property for about two
‘Very difficult to identify cause’
months. Everyone could smell it. As far as I know, nothing was done about it.’
However, Mr Hancock, who works for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue, ruled out gas as a cause because there was no evidence of an explosion.
Mr Cuthbertson was born in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire. The family had ‘daisy-chained’ extension cables at the farmhouse and an electrical fault could not be ruled out, the inquest heard.
Investigators said the damage done by the heat made it impossible to pinpoint an exact cause.
The inquest heard Leaf thought the blaze started from the open log fire in the main sitting room below her bedroom.
She and two of her brothers woke to find the farmhouse full of black smoke and managed to escape to raise the alarm.
The children’s mother Sima Khan, 44, attended yesterday’s hearing. She had moved out of the house after suffering a brain haemorrhage which left her unable to walk and talk.
Detective Inspector Philip Saunders, of Dyfed-Powys Police, said: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it [the fire] – it was ferocious.’