999 call handler wrongly categorised Preston house fire which killed two children, inquest hears

The call was initially classified as a category 2 instead of category 1, which meant that ambulance crews could have been on the scene sooner.

Louis Constantin Busuioc and his sister Desire-Elena Busuioc never regained consciousness after being rescued from their home in Coronation Crescent, Frenchwood, Preston, by firefighters.

They were pronounced dead by doctors four days later.

Area coroner Chris Long has resumed the inquest into the deaths of Louis, aged five, and Desire, aged three, in April 2022.

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The hearing at County Hall, Preston, was today (December 2) examining the response by emergency services to the incident.

Angela Lee, service and delivery manager at NWAS, said a category 1 alert meant an ambulance should be on the scene within 7 minutes. For category 2 it was 18 minutes.

She told the hearing that the first call was received by a NWAS call handler at 7.56pm.

It came from the fire and rescue service who said up to eight people were believed to be in the building.

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It was logged as a category 2 response. The call handler tried to contact the original informant three times but there was no response.

Ms Lee said the call handler should have escalated the call, meaning that specialist services and more ambulances could be deployed.

She estimated that had it been escalated to category 1 the rapid response vehicle would have been there by 8.01pm, with the first ambulance possibly about the same time although there were none available at the time.

When the second call came in to NWAS at 8.08pm, it was classified as category 1.

The rapid response vehicle arrived at the scene at 8.14pm and the first ambulance at 8.18pm

The hearing continues.