Child may have started Preston house fire which killed two by playing with lighter, inquest hears

A coroner was told police and fire experts investigating the tragedy found evidence the inferno had been started in a couch using a kitchen lighter.

Both Louis Constantin Busuioc and his little sister Desire-Elena Busuioc perished in the blaze - they never regained consciousness after being carried out of the building by firefighters and were pronounced dead by doctors four days later.

But, despite claims by mum Lorena Ferara that both youngsters were with her in a locked upstairs bedroom when the blaze broke out, the detective leading the investigation into their deaths said there was strong evidence that one of them had used a wire coat hanger to unclip a safety chain on the bedroom door and gone downstairs while the mother was asleep.

The children's father later told police his partner had told him one of the children had come upstairs and said there was a fire downstairs.

Det Chief Insp Rachel Higson, who was the senior investigating officer, said the evidence suggested a naked flame had been held against a settee in the lounge of the mid-terraced house in Coronation Crescent, Frenchwood.

There was no evidence of any third party involvement.

READ MORE: Mum desperately tried to rescue her two children from blazing inferno.

CCTV in the area did not show anything which suggested someone had entered the house and interviews with neighbours found nothing suspicious.

"There was no evidence of anyone (else) in that house at the time," she told Area Coroner Chris Long at the hearing in County Hall on Monday (Janaury 8).

The inquest was told the two children and their mother had gone into the front upstairs bedroom to watch TV about 6pm on that Friday night in April 2022 because the set downstairs was broken.

Their father Lucian Busuioc had left for work at around 4:50pm.

Ms Ferara said she had put the bedroom door on a safety chain on the inside to prevent the youngsters going downstairs.

The chain was needed, she said, because five-year-old Louis could reach the door handle and get out.

Youngest child Desire fell asleep first and then Ms Ferara must have nodded off, only to be awakened by a smoke alarm.

She initially told police the door was closed and the chain was still in place. But later a scorch mark on the bedroom carpet indicated the door had in fact been open when the blaze reached them.

Ms Ferara tried desperately to save her children, but the main bedroom window - meant as a fire escape route - had no handle and couldn't be opened.

The handle was later found in a drawer, with the couple saying it had been removed as a safety precaution to prevent the children climbing on furniture, opening the window and falling out.

After frantic efforts to lift her children through a narrow top window as neighbours urged her to throw them down, Ms Ferara eventually climbed out herself and jumped. Firefighters battled their way into the house and brought the lifeless children out.

Video footage, shot by a neighbour, of the horrific moments when the house was engulfed in flames were shown to the inquest.

Det Chief Insp Higson revealed that because it was first thought the bedroom had been locked from the inside the investigation centred on the possibility of third party involvement.

But the investigators could find no evidence of anyone else being in the house.

She added that investigations at the scene indicated a naked flame held against a settee in the lounge had been the cause of the fire.

"In the bedroom we found a chain at the back of the (bedroom) door with a metal coat hanger and we found a mark on the carpet which suggested the door was open at the time (of the fire)," she said.

"My conclusion would be that the fire had been started by potentially one of the children who used a coat hanger to open the door and go downstairs."

She added the remains of a kitchen lighter - used for the cooker - were found next to where the seat of the fire was, but there were no traces of an accelerant being used.

And she said there had been "conflicting accounts" from the parents, with the father saying at first that his partner had told him one of the children had come upstairs and said there was a fire downstairs.

"But both parents now maintain that the children were inside the bedroom with the chain locked securely."

In fact police found the chain on the bedroom door was dangling down, with the coat hanger hooked into the chain. The hanger was also bent at the bottom to indicate it had been pulled down.

Det Chief Insp Higson told the coroner that the couple may have said what they did in the immediate aftermath of the fire because they could have been suffering from "immense grief and shock."

Both parents admitted that the children had previously been caught playing with a lighter and they had been told it was dangerous.

In a previous hearing the parents had raised concerns about the speed at which the emergency services reacted to the incident.

But Det Chief Insp Higson said: "Having watched the footage it's obvious the trauma all the emergency services faced. Everyone was doing their utmost - everybody was trying to do their best by those children.

"It was extremely sad that unfortunately they were unable to save those children. Having watched it I don't believe there was anything more that could have been done."