\u201cLayla was a fit, healthy 13-year-old, she wasn\u2019t trapped, and there was no reason why she wouldn\u2019t have at least been able to get down from the bunk, even if it was on fire,\u201d Baller-Wilson said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf Layla did start the fire herself, there would be no reason why she wouldn\u2019t escape the room. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s possible that her clothes may have ignited, but I still would have expected her to get herself down from the bunk and attempt self-rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evidence showed the fire started on the top bunk before spreading through the mattress supported by oxygen from an open bedside window, People reported.<\/p>\n
Coroner Anita Bhardwaj said the other children in the house were unable to be interviewed by police about the fire, as the family reportedly indicated the interviews would retraumatise them.<\/p>\n
The inquest also heard that another \u201cmember of the family\u201d used a lighter to start a fire which engulfed another bed in the house just six months before Layla\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Baller-Wilson said that fire caused \u201cconsiderable damage, with smoke spreading to the front of the house\u201d.<\/p>\n
The family were reportedly referred to a fire safety education programme.<\/p>\n
An open verdict was handed down, with Bhardwaj said she did not \u201chave sufficient evidence to make findings of fact to reach any conclusion other than an open conclusion\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are too many unanswered questions here. We don\u2019t know what actually happened. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know who started the actual fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bhardwaj expressed concern that the fatal blaze was the second fire within a few months, and said she was \u201cglad that social services are involved, because there are clearly highlighted issues\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot stress enough the importance of you as a family, for the children, to have the input of the fire services to give you guidance and support in keeping the children safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLayla was a fit, healthy 13-year-old, she wasn\u2019t trapped, and there was no reason why she wouldn\u2019t have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1558,3595,20787,6179,7126,11908,2079,305,42,27501,1350,10053,66959,78,13999,141082,43,6505,11555,20110,40,38,41,39,1613],"class_list":["post-239475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-been","tag-by","tag-cigarette","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-english","tag-fire","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-heard","tag-hears","tag-house","tag-ignited","tag-in","tag-inquest","tag-lighter","tag-news","tag-schoolgirl","tag-started","tag-thought","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}