Sadie PETERS and 2 others · Prevention of Future Deaths report

The inquest into the deaths of Sadie PETERS, Joseph PETERS and George PETERS was opened on the 8th January 2015 and was resumed on the 17th May 2016 and concluded that same day.

In the case of each death I found the cause of death to have been:

1a. Inhalation of fire fumes.

In the case of each death I concluded with a short form conclusion of ‘Accidental Death’.

During the winter months Sadie Peters lived together with her three sons, ████████, Joseph aged 6 years and George aged 14 months, with her husband and the children’s father ████████ in a permanent mobile home situated at The Plantation, Lingfield, Surrey. ████████ was a showman and came from a long line of showmen. Other members of his family and fellow showmen families also lived in permanent caravans at the Plantation. At about 01.30 hours on the 30th December 2014 ████████ was awoken by sounds outside his caravan. When he went outside to investigate he discovered that ████████ caravan was on fire. He made valiant attempts to save the people inside and managed to rescue his brother ████████ and the couple’s eldest child ████████. Tragically Sadie Peters and the two youngest children, Joseph and George, did not manage to escape and all three died in the fire.
I heard evidence that the fire started in a small extension to the caravan that housed a solid fuel burner and that this burner was the most likely cause of the fire. I heard that it became apparent from a close examination of the remains of the fire that there was no smoke detector fitted inside the caravan.
Further, I was told that had a smoke detector been fitted inside the caravan the occupants would have been warned about the fire at an early stage and that it was more likely than not that the outcome would have been different.

Fitting of Smoke Detectors in all Mobile and Static Caravans

1. Consideration should be given to maintaining or developing any existing programmes and, where appropriate, creating new programmes which are designed to raise awareness amongst people using or living in caravans, whether mobile or permanent, of the importance of fitting and maintaining a fully functioning smoke detector inside the caravan.