Four young boys who died after being left alone in a rubbish-strewn home cried “there’s a fire here” as neighbours desperately tried to rescue them, a court has heard.
Deveca Rose, 29, is on trial for the manslaughter of her two sets of twins, Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, and child cruelty. She is alleged to have left her four boys home alone with the doors locked while she went shopping at Sainsbury’s.
The four boys died after a fire was sparked by either a discarded cigarette or a tea light in the living room, where rubbish was reportedly piled 20cm high, at their home in Sutton, south London, on 16 December 2021, the court heard. The children were known to social services but their case was closed three months before their deaths.
On Tuesday, a London fire brigade station officer, Darren Woodhams, told the court that the smoke detector on the first floor was “inoperable” as it had no batteries.
A passerby banged on the door of a neighbour to alert her to a fire next door. She made the first of four calls to the fire brigade, saying there were children inside the property, jurors were told.
Woodhams said the neighbour saw there was “smoke and flames” coming from next door and also alerted her husband. “He could hear the children’s voices saying there was a fire here, over and over.
“A neighbour forced the front door of the property open to try to get into the property to access the children. However, due to the fire’s intensity in the front room of the property they were unable to enter.”
Eight fire engine units were deployed to the scene, with the first arriving at 6.54pm. Two firefighters went in to rescue the children. They extinguished the fire and began searching the ground floor before moving upstairs.
Woodhams said the crew experienced difficulties due to a mattress and “possibly a door” lying on the stairs, which were removed.
The firefighters found the boys under a bed. All four were unconscious and not breathing. Once they were brought outside, firefighters assisted with chest compressions and the use of a defibrillator but the boys were later declared dead in hospital.
Rose claimed she had left the children with a woman called Jade, which prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her. But the court heard that extensive inquiries had led to the “firm conclusion” that Jade either did not exist or played no part in the events of that evening.
Rose has denied the charges against her. The trial continues.