The deaths of a loving couple killed in a gas explosion in Hounslow two years ago have been ruled as accidental by a coroner. at an inquest held on Tuesday (July 28).
The two families of Suhail Akhtar, 46, and his 34-year-old girlfriend, Dorota Kolasinska, have waited almost two years for the hearing, which was held at West London Coroners’ Court on Tuesday (July 28).
West London Coroner Chinyere Inyama described the deaths as "tragic".
The court heard that the gas explosion was sparked by a tree falling on a house in Bath Road on October 26 2013, during St Jude's storm, rupturing a gas pipe and creating a deadly build-up of gas, which then ignited.
Around 25 minutes later a gas explosion ripped through three houses. Five people managed to escape, with one elderly lady suffering from life-changing injuries.
But Mr Akhtar and Ms Kolasinska, who had lived together in Bath Road since 2006, were found in the debris around five hours after firefighters started searching the three obliterated houses with sniffer dogs.
Detective Sergeant Stuart Smoult, who wrote the police report on the events, told the inquest that the gas pipes had likely been laid 70 years previously and that the roots of the tree which fell were growing through them.
The tree itself had been a source of concern for neighbours in the street due to its roots pushing up paving stones and dead leaves covering the walkway.
However, as it was on private land, the tree lay outside of Hounslow Council’s enforcement remit, the court heard, and the gas board would have had no way of knowing the gas pipes were being impacted by the roots.
Miss Kolasinka is believed to have been a traffic light sequencer for Hackney Council and, like her partner, had been a keen cyclist and charity fundraiser.
Her devastated sister, Anna Bogdaniuk, told getwestlondon: "We have been waiting for this for over a year-and-a-half and, in that time, we have not really been able to grieve for them.
"Is there any relief? No, I have no relief. They are no longer here.
"No matter what we say or do, no one will be able to return them to us. I just hope that no one will perish in circumstances such as this ever again."
Mr Akhtar, who was originally from Huddersfield and whose family own a shop in Halifax, was a computer systems architect at the time of his death and was described as "easy going with a friendly nature".
The court heard that he had bought the house in Bath Road, in 1997, in considerable disrepair and spent many years doing it up.
His girlfriend, Dorota, moved in with him in October 2006.
'Closure'
Brother, Dr Aslam Akhtar, said: "Life is very fragile and this has been tragic.
"I’ve often said to family members that there’s more chance of winning the lottery than there is waking up in your bed and the tree next door that you worry about has killed you.
"He’d broken his leg as it was this wretched tree that had caused him to come off his bike. Something should have been done about that tree.
"Two years for a coroner’s inquest is excessive but we had closure at his funeral."
The coroner acknowledged that "sadly the sequence of events leading up to the tragic events of the morning of the October 26 are still so difficult to comprehend, let alone come to terms with".
He ruled that the cause of death for both Mr Akhtar and Ms Kolasinska was by traumatic asphyxia and that "the most tragic and unforeseeable set of events resulted in accidental death".
He concluded: "I see death every day and I very rarely use the word tragic, but in this case I do.
"They were a loving couple and, when something as unexpected as this happens, it is particularly tragic and hard to deal with."
