An elderly woman died in a blaze at her home when fire crews failed to attend for 90 minutes – even though she lived just a mile from a main station.
Molly Wigmore, 76, died from smoke inhalation when control room operators refused to send anyone because they dismissed reports of just ‘smoke in the area.’
The first 999 call was made at 5.17am reporting a smoke alarm sounding and a smell of smoke from her end-terrace house in Plymouth, Devon.
That should have automatically led to a crew being dispatched but the senior operator on duty overruled and none was sent.
Molly Wigmore, 76, left and right, died from smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at her home in Plymouth, Devon, with firefighters taking 90 minutes to arrive from a station a little over a mile away
An inquest heard control room operators ‘refused to send anyone’ to the property, pictured after the blaze, because it was ‘just reports of smoke in the area’
Neighbours made a second call at 6.44am and a fire engine finally arrived at 6.50am by which time the house was well alight.
When they eventually showed up they were shouted at by angry neighbours.
A coroner heard that one yelled: ‘You should have been here two hours ago’ and that ‘if she’s dead, it’s on you’.
By the time they did arrive Mrs Wigmore was dead in her bedroom. Her pet cat Geraldine died in the fire.
Station manager David Roddy, who led an investigation, confirmed that one officer in the control room was dismissed after the blunder in October 2017.
A second received a final written warning and re-training over the incident.
The inquest in Plymouth heard a call handler dismissed the smell from the burning house as ‘only smoke in the area’ to one worried neighbour.
Mr Roddy told the coroner the blame lay with individual error and said: ‘This was an individual failing rather than an organisational failing.’
The inquest found that a crew deployment was ‘overruled’ in a ‘breach of procedure’.
Mr Roddy told the hearing that following a call reporting a smell of smoke a minimum of one pump should have been deployed immediately.
Mrs Wigmore’s house was around a mile-and-a-half from Camel’s Head Fire Station.
By the time emergency services arrived in the street, pictured, Mrs Wigmore was already dead
The inquest ruled the call handlers should ‘have taken more care’ over the response but medical evidence could not prove the delay resulted in her death
However, the senior operator overruled sending a pump to a call about ‘smoke in the area’.
The inquest heard that two fire control room officers ‘failed to deal with calls with due diligence’.
Mr Roddy said call handlers should have taken ‘more care’ over three calls to take the right course of action.
Det Con Glenn Harrop told the inquest that Mrs Wigmore was in poor health and for these reasons it ‘couldn’t be proved beyond all reasonable doubt’ whether the delay in sending the fire engine resulted in her death.
Coroner Ian Arrow recorded a narrative conclusion.
After the inquest her sister Sheila said: ‘Molly was a loving lady. I am satisfied this was a one off but it is too tragic’.