Fireman's widow’s fury at brigade errors
6:22am Sunday 2nd July 2006 in Latest News By Kevin Barnes
The widow of a Surey firefighter has expressed her anger after a ruling that her husband died in a burning clothes shop because of communication failures and an inadequate water supply.
Michelle Faust, 38, said she hoped London Fire Brigade would never repeat the mistakes acknowledged by an inquest jury last week.
Billy Faust, 36, the father of her three young children, and his colleague Adam Meere, 27, were killed in July 2004 when a fire intensified at the three-storey building in east London. It was the first double death in the fire service for eight years.
St Pancras Coroner's Court had been told that senior fire brigade officers made a series of errors after a stray cigarette sparked the blaze.
During the 10-day hearing it emerged that a hose reel was "burnt through", and that supervisors failed to activate powerful water jets.
After a narrative verdict was recorded last Friday, Mrs Faust said: "I feel pleased that justice has been done after such a long wait, despite all the efforts of the fire service to try to cloud the evidence.
"I hope that no one else has to go through what we've been through, and that systems are in place to protect firefighters in future."
She added: "I do feel anger towards senior managers for these systemic failures.
"I have to say that if my son said he wanted to be a firefighter I would have serious concerns."
The firefighters who died were sent into the basement without radio communications.
While inside, the water supply to their hoses was stopped as crews ventilated the clothes shop.
The effect, jurors were told, was to fan the fatal flames.
The coroner, Dr Andrew Reid, said that the fire crews had never seen the "forthcoming catastrophic tragedy evolving".
"If this fire had been extinguished before firefighters Faust and Meere lost their lives it would have been a near miss," he said.
"Instead it was an extremely sad and tragic day for all concerned because of the double fatality."
Dr Reid said he would write to the relevant authorities to ensure their co-operation with the accident investigators' recommendations.
