Michael Mitchell

Michael Mitchell died after his house in Killigrew Street, Falmouth, exploded and caught fire.

He died a week later.

An open verdict was returned at his inquest.

The Coroner said that there was no indication that the fire was either accidental or deliberate, or whether it was the result of some criminal intent.

Michael Mitchell had been a lodger at the property but had also at the time been improving the lounge.

When Michael Mitchell was put into an ambulance after being rescued from the fire, he told the ambulance man that he had walked in through the front door of his house and lit a cigarette and that there was then an:

He told the ambulanceman that he then tried to make for the front door so that he could roll on the road to put out the flames on his clothing.

The ambulanceman said that as Michael Mitchell lay in the ambulance he mentioned that the South-West Gas Board had carried out work at the house on the afternoon of the explosion. The ambulanceman said:

A retained fireman that had lived in Tregenver Road in Falmouth said that when he went into the house that he could smell gas and could hear hissing. He said that he then contacted the Station Officer and that they went into the lounge where the serious fire had been contained and found a gas tap switched on which was not attached to an appliance.

Then, whilst the Station Officer stood with his finger on the end of the gas pipe, the fireman tried to turn off the tap, but it was too stiff to be turned by hand, however, he managed to turn it off with a pair of pliers.

Then, when the fireman went to turn off the gas at the gas supply, he said he could smell gas again and found that at least one ring of a gas cooker in the basement kitchen was on, but had not been lit.

A South-West Gas service supervisor that examined the appliances said that two gas fires in the attic bedroom and the basement had been pulled off the wall.

A South-West Gas technical services officer said that to pull the fires off the wall and distort the tubing the way it was would have taken a lot of force, equivalent to an adult standing on it. He noted that the fire in the basement kitchen had been pulled to such an extent that one leg was no longer on the hearth.

A Gas Board service engineer that had lived in Meadowbank Road said that he had gone to the terraced four storey house on the afternoon of the fire following a complaint about a gas leak and stated that there was definitely no gas escaping in the house after his visit. He said that when he had been called out that he located and made safe a leak on the grill of the cooker and around an upstairs wall heater, but stated that it was a different story when he returned the next day after the fire.

He said:

Michael Mitchell had been a labourer/handyman, and had been at the property improving the lounge. The property itself belonged to his former mother-in-law and her then live-in boyfriend.

In addition to the blaze that quickly destroyed the lounge that Michael Mitchell had been working on, there was also a secondary smouldering fire two floors up in the attic bedroom of the former mother-in-law.

The Station Officer said that there was a burned area on the floor of the attic bedroom in front of a built-in wardrobe and that leading away from it there was a trail of clothes and rag dolls.

It was further noted that Michael Mitchell's former mother-in-law, aged 44-years-old, had suffered a less serious fire in the same attic bedroom a few months earlier.

She said that on the evening of the fire that they had all gone out to celebrate her daughter's 24th birthday.

It was reported that Michael Mitchell's former mother-in-law had gone out dressed as a waitress for a night out with her daughter who was dressed in a nun's habit that revealed her underwear and their lodger who had been wearing women's clothing, along with another woman and two other friends. Before they went out they had already been drinking heavily at the house. They went first to the Grapes pub in Falmouth and then to the Ship and Castle pub.

They had planned to go on to the Club International where they planned to meet Michael Mitchell, but that was abandoned when they were told about the fire and what had happened to Michael Mitchell.

When they went back to the house, neighbours said that Michael Mitchell's former mother-in-law and her daughter tried to get into the house and that the former mother-in-law was screaming hysterically and had to be held against the wall to stop her trying to go into the house.

It was noted that the fire had left the occupants homeless.

Michael Mitchell's ex-wife said that the last time she saw Michael Mitchell before the explosion was when he invited her into the Jacob's Ladder pub for a quick birthday drink that evening.

It then appeared from the evidence that after leaving the Jacob's Ladder that Michael Mitchell went into the house in Killigrew Street before then going down to the Grapes before returning to the house for the last time.

A man that had been seeing Michael Mitchell's former mother-in-law said that Michael Mitchell's relationship with his former mother-in-law stopped when he moved in, but noted that Michael Mitchell stayed on as a lodger.

One of the women that had gone out with the group on the Halloween night admitted that she had dropped a lighted cigarette on the floor of the attic bedroom as she helped the lodger put on his women's clothes from the woman's wardrobe, however, the man said that he was certain that the ash didn't cause the upstairs fire becuse he put his bare foot on it.

A Home Office forensic scientist said that he examined 51 items that were taken from the house and said that he found nothing on Michael Mitchell or in the debris that would have accelerated the fire.

A pathologist said that Michael Mitchell suffered skin loss as a result of burns to his face, neck, back, arms and legs and died as a result of the burns.

A neighbour that lived across the street said that there had been a loud bang that blew half a double-glazed sash sized window out of the lounge window, landing almost on his feet. A man that had been at the house then went out and started kicking at the front door of the burning house, noting that the door appeared to be locked and that all the time he could hear someone shouting for help. He said that he then climbed the railings to look into the lounge window which was lit by the intense glowing inside. He said:

By then, two other people came to his assistance and they all tried to kick in the door and they managed to smash a piece of glass in the door and unlock it. They then went in and kicked the lounge door and saw Michael Mitchell on fire, moaning with pain, and they then helped him out on to the doorstep .

The man said:

It was noted then that, despite the thick smoke, that the three men then checked the rest of the house, making sure that it was empty.

One of the other men said that he was shocked when he saw Michael Mitchell, stating that his hair, moustache, and eyebrows were singed and that his hands were burned. He said that he had a feeling that the house was about to go up and helped to move Michael Mitchell from the doorstep to the safety of the road and that within a few minutes the house was ablaze.

However, despite the amount of evidence and number of witnesses, the inquest heard that it was not possible to determine the cause of the fire and an open verdict was returned.