999 call handlers given extra training alter Preston house fire which killed two children misclassified

An emergency call about a fatal house fire in Preston in which two children died was wrongly categorised by the North West Ambulance Service, an inquest was told.

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

They were pronounced dead by doctors four days later.

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.

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.

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Ms Lee said as a result of a review of the incident, call handlers had been given extra training to ensure that similar 999 calls are escalated in future.

Ged Basson from the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said the first 999 call was received by them at 7.52pm.

They were told there were seven casualties and there was some confusion over the exact address as the caller was panicking.

Three fire appliances were sent within 3 minutes and the first arrived at the scene at 7.59pm.

By 8.15pm it was reported that two children had been rescued.

Mr Basson said the service had missed its 90-second target time for vehicles to be dispatched as the address had to be checked. Changes had since been made to the system so addresses could be validated.

The inquest has heard that the children had been in an upstairs bedroom with their mother Lorena Ferara, who tried to save them. She eventually jumped to safety from a window.

One theory was that the blaze was caused by one of the children holding a kitchen lighter against a downstairs settee. Firefighters concluded that the bedroom door was open when the fire started.

The parents told investigators that Louis had previously been found with a lighter and had also set fire to clothes in the bedroom in the recent past.

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Earlier, firefighters told the hearing how they had to carry out a fingertip search amid thick smoke to locate the two children.

Firefighter Stephen Robinson said in a statement that he and a colleague were already wearing breathing apparatus when their vehicle arrived at the scene.

After going in with a hose reel they encountered a fierce blaze downstairs.

They went upstairs to look for any occupants.

"It was thick black smoke, we couldn't see anything," said Mr Robinson, "I entered the bedroom and searched by feel as I couldn't see anything."

He said his colleague found a small child and took the casualty outside.

He carried on searching on his own and found another child.

He ran downstairs and gave the child to a colleague before returning back upstairs.

Mr Robinson said he had never been on a call like that in his career and it was "overwhelming."

Paramedics told the inquest that firefighters were already carrying out CPR on the children when they arrived at the scene.

They took over and the children were put into ambulances and rushed to hospital.

The hearing continues.