Family blaze tragedy blamed on faulty freezer

A HOUSE fire that killed a mother and her five children last year was caused when a freezer failed, a coroner has found.

Muna Elmufatish, 41, daughters Hanin Kua, 14, Basma, 13, Amal, nine, and sons Mustafa, five, and Yehya, two, died in the fire in September last year.

The inquest into their deaths at North London Coroner’s Court in Barnet heard that the family were all asleep when the blaze engulfed their home in the early hours.

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Coroner Andrew Walker found that all five died as a result of “inhalation of fire fumes”.

Issuing a narrative verdict he said: “The fire started when a capacitor adjacent to a compressor in a compartment in a freezer failed and caught fire.

“The fire did reach the insulation and was fuelled by it – it spread upstairs where the family were.”

Only her husband Bassam Kua and his daughter Nur, 17, escaped the property in Sonia Gardens, Neasden, and they were treated in hospital. Mr Kua battled to save his family but without success.

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Mr Walker said the loss to the remaining family member must be “unbearable”.

London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Steve Turek said the fire was an “absolutely tragic incident”.

“The fire in Sonia Gardens last September is the worst that the London Fire Brigade has attended in over a decade,” he said.