A coroner has called on parents to educate their children about the dangers of fire and fuels following the tragic death of a three-year-old boy in a Launceston shed fire last year.
The boy’s death, deemed accidental by the Tasmania Fire Service, occurred while he was at home with his baby brother and mother, who was also babysitting a friend’s two children on November 30, 2022.
Coroner Robert Webster said the child was inside the family garden shed when his mother heard an explosion and went running outside to find black smoke billowing from the shed.
“She could hear [her son]. She ripped the door of the shed open (it wasn’t locked but had swung closed) but she could not see [him], Coroner Webster said.
“She was unable to retrieve him due to the intensity of the smoke and the heat.”
Neighbours heard the commotion and jumped the fence to assist, using buckets of water and a garden hose to try and extinguish the fire.
The back shed where the fire occurred contained containers of petrol for the lawn mower, which the boy’s mother believed he couldn’t enter because it had a difficult-to-open latch.
Fire investigators determined the blaze to have been ignited by a cigarette lighter found outside the shed door.
Coroner Webster said the adults in the home were smokers and would often leave cigarette lighters within reach of the children, but said the boy “[had] never used or even tried to use a lighter”.
He emphasised the importance of parents properly educating their children about fire safety and ensuring that mobile ignition sources and flammable liquids are stored out of reach.
“This very tragic event has had life changing effects on not only one but two families and their friends.”
“Mobile ignition sources and flammable liquids should be stored in such a way that they are inaccessible to children.”
The coroner extended his condolences to the family and loved ones of the boy who died.
