The verdict of a Harrow man who was killed saving his family from a fatal fire caused by a fridge freezer has come to an end, four years after the tragic incident.
The Coroner in the case of Santosh Benjamin, 36, who died in a house fire in November 2010 has made a series of recommendations, which would mean a radical overhaul in the way that all household appliances in the UK are sold and regulated if implemented.
The two children, aged three years and three months at the time, survived the fire along with Mr Benjamin’s wife, Jennifer, who was on maternity leave at the time.
The Coroner, delivering his verdict at North London Coroner’s Court today (Friday, September 26 ), found that a fault in a Beko fridge freezer was the cause of the fire.
In his verdict he recommended that failure to notify authorities of a fault could result in a prison sentence for manufacturers among a range of measures to ensure the safety of household appliances.
Mr Walker said: "On November 10 in 2010, Mr Mutiah and Jennifer Mutiah went to bed in Harrow with their two children. In the early hours Dr Benjamin, woke up coughing, she woke up Mr Mutiah and told him to get the children.
"The neighbours came to help, at some point in the night, the failure of the Beko fridge freezer timer caused a fire. One of the children was passed to the neighbour by Mr Mutiah, the other child was rescued by a neighbours. The parents could not leave the house, and Dr Benjamin was found unconscious on the bed and Mr Mutiah was found unconscious in the bathroom.
"On the 13th of November he died at Northwick Park Hospital as a consequence of smoke inhalation of a fire at his house."
A pre-inquest hearing in May 2013 heard that in November 2008 Beko instructed leading safety lab Intertek to run a risk assessment on its products.
Intertek concluded that various models of fridge freezers manufactured by the company were ‘a serious risk’ and the safety specialists recommended ‘rapid corrective action’.
The Court heard how a week later, an email from Beko's headquarters in Turkey replied, "we don’t need to recall these products” and then in June 2010, the London Fire Brigade raised a number of 'very serious points' with Beko.
In today’s verdict, Coroner Walker said he would be recommending a series of measures through Prevention of Future Deaths Reports, publically available reports written when a Coroner feels that the evidence he has heard means that action should be taken to prevent future deaths.
Speaking after the verdict, Mr Benjamin's widow, Jennifer said: "Today marks the end of a long road for us as a family.
"We as a family lost a gentle and nurturing father to my kids, a very special son and a loving husband as a result of this tragic incident. Santosh was an active member of our church, a respected professional at Microsoft and a doting father to my children.
"Nothing can ever replace the loss of my cherished husband and my best friend Santosh Benjamin.
"What happened to us as a family should never happen again to another household.
"We sincerely hope that this legal exercise results in changes to prevent incidents of this nature in the future. We as a family want changes made to the legislation governing product safety. The value of a human life is priceless."
Jill Paterson from the product liability team at law firm Leigh Day, who is representing Mr Benjamin's family said: “We welcome this verdict and the measures that Coroner Walker has recommended.
"Through our ‘Expect it’s Safe’ campaign we have been calling for more to be done to ensure that people who have faulty appliances in their home are made aware of the problems, regardless of the cost to the company whose responsibility it is to provide safe and reliable products.
“We now call upon the Government and other relevant bodies to implement all of these recommendations without delay in the hope that they will prevent any future needless tragedy caused by a household appliance.”
