Tragic mother repeatedly asked for smoke alarms, court is told
A WOMAN whose two young sons died in a house fire has told a jury she repeatedly asked her property manager to fit smoke alarms.
Logan Taylor, three, and Jake Casey, two, died in a blaze at their home in Huddersfield in what was an “eminently avoidable” tragedy, Leeds Crown Court heard. The boys’ mother, Emma Taylor, said she asked property management company director Kamal Bains “time after time” to fit fire alarms.
Describing one incident in which she showed Bains a news story about smoke alarm regulations, Ms Taylor said: “As long as he got his rent money, he was happy for me to live like that with my kids. He just fobbed me off.”
Ms Taylor was giving evidence on the first day of the trial of Bains, 51, who denies gross negligence manslaughter.
She was in tears as she described how the fire broke out in the boys’ bedroom on February 20, 2016. Ms Taylor said she was beaten back by thick smoke as she tried to pull her children to safety.
The jury was told the blaze at the Alder Street home began with an electrical fault in a TV in the boys’ bedroom.
Prosecutor Allan Compton said Bains was the “heart of soul” of the now defunct Prime Property Estates (Yorkshire).
Mr Compton said: “He was responsible for an inexcusable failure to ensure that 256 Alder Street was equipped with working smoke alarms.
“It was a tragedy, we say, that was eminently avoidable.”
He said Bains told police there were smoke alarms installed when the family moved in but fire investigators found no trace of any alarms.
Tests showed that Ms Taylor would have had five minutes to rescue her two boys if an alarm had been fitted.
Bains would have been aware that new laws came into force in October 2015 which meant it was mandatory for smoke alarms to be fitted on all floors of rented properties, the court heard.
Mr Compton said Bains told detectives all of his properties had smoke alarms but tenants would take them down when they sounded.
Bains, of Stableford Gardens, Huddersfield, denies two counts of manslaughter and one offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The trial continues.