Farah Rashid death blaze inquest - electrical fault started 2009 Cunningham Place fire

Published: 24 June 2011
by JOSH LOEB

A FIRE that ripped through a St John’s Wood flat claiming the lives of a five-year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother was caused by an electrical fault, an inquest heard.

The body of Farah Rashid was discovered in the flat in Cunningham Place, where she lived with her family, following the blaze on December 17 2009.

Her brother Mohamid was taken to hospital after jumping from a third-floor window in a bid to escape the flames but later died from his injuries.

An inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court yesterday (Thursday), attended by the children’s devastated parents, heard the fire started when a light fitting in the flat’s utility room overheated in the early hours.

The family, who had lived in Holland for nine years, had moved to the UK to be near family and were staying with the children’s aunt and uncle, the inquest heard.

Farah, “a mummy’s and daddy’s girl who enjoyed playing with her Barbie doll,” was in the flat with her father, Walid Rashid, uncle and three brothers on the night of the fire.

Her uncle and two brothers were able to escape when neighbours broke the front door down, but Mohamid jumped from a bedroom window after flames engulfed the room.

Mr Rashid was subsequently rescued from the flat by firefighters.

The court heard that investigators had traced the cause of the fire to the faulty light fitting but had been unable to establish whether it met safety standards as it had been manufactured in China in 2001.

Westminster deputy coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said she would write to the relevant authorities alerting them of the dangers.

She said: “I’ve heard from the Health and Safety Executive that it hasn’t been possible to say with any certainty that this light fitting had been tested to British standards.

“Trading standards aren’t able to take matters any further and HSE aren’t able as it is a product within a domestic environment.

“I’m going to consider using my powers under Rule 43 to bring this to the attention of authorities to prevent any further fatalities.”