‘Farmhouse blaze deaths probe may take months’
POLICE investigating a fatal house fire which killed six people – including five children – say it may take weeks or even months to recover bodies from the wreckage.
David Cuthbertson, 68, and five children aged between four and 12 are thought to have died in the fire at a farmhouse in Llangammarch Wells, Powys, on October 30.
Three children aged 13, 12, and 10 escaped the fire and are now being cared for by specially trained officers and family.
Police continue to treat the fire as unexplained.
Speaking at a press briefing at Llandrindod Wells Police Station yesterday, South Wales Police Chief Superintendent Tony Brown said the farmhouse was unstable and officers would be unable to enter the scene until it had been made safe.
Mr Brown said: “It is very difficult for the family. What I can’t do is to put the lives of my officers at risk by them entering an unstable building. We have already had a partial collapse in that building.
“I have given reassurance to the family when we met yesterday that we will do it as quickly as possible but it has to be in the safest possible manner.”
Dyfed-Powys Police are now being assisted by a team of officers from South Wales Police and Gwent Police led by Chief Supt Brown, who has specialist knowledge and skills in recovering remains under similar circumstances.
Police say there are likely to be at least 40 officers, staff, specialist investigators and scientists on site at any one time, but the operation is likely to take several weeks or months to complete.
Mr Brown said a structural engineer had visited the farmhouse in the week since the tragedy and deemed the site “unsafe”, advising officers not to enter the building until it has been dismantled.
He said: “The building is unstable, and we have had experts in to give us that identification, and as a result it’s going to require 260 tonnes of bricks and mortar being taken down by hand, brick by brick, in order to gain access to the farmhouse.
“After that we will then have specially trained officers from across the south Wales region in a collaborative effort to recover those deceased. In doing so, it will mean a fingertip search of the whole of the inside of the building and recovering the items from those buildings being mindful of the investigation but also doing our utmost to find those deceased that remain in the building at this time.”
Dyfed-Powys Police Chief Inspector Martin Slevin said: “The nature of the fire was intense and the scene presents significant difficulties in respect of the recovery of any remains and assessments of the scene in relation to how the fire was caused.”
Chief Insp Slevin said the surviving children “suffered significant trauma” as a result of the tragic incident.
He said: “We are talking with the children, but I won’t go into specific details at this time about the nature of those conversations and where we are with interviewing them. This has to be dealt with appropriately and the timescale of that cannot be rushed due to the trauma that the children have experienced.”
A temporary roof has been placed on the building, which is thought to be about 200 years old and may also contain asbestos.