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Child killed by falling mantlepiece

Report ID: news145

Published: Newsletter No 17 - January 2010

Source: NEWS

Report Content

An inquest jury ruled that a four year old child died from severe chest injuries after a 110lb stone lintel fell on him at his home. The verdict stated: "The mantelpiece became detached from the headstone as a result of a failure to apply a sufficient amount of approximately mixed mortar or additional fixings. The lack of national industry standards and regulation for the fitting of fire surrounds, including training, installation, quality inspection, secondary review and audit paper trails, were also a contributory factor."

 

Extract from the publication ‘natural stone specialist’

 After the inquest the Deputy Coroner who presided wrote to the Department of Communities & Local Government expressing his concern about the lack of standards. The inquest heard that the fireplace fixing had been sub-contracted by the builder to another company. A spokesperson for the Department of Communities & Local Government said after receiving the Coroner’s letter: “We will consider carefully the coroner’s comments. While fixtures and fitting do not normally fall under building regulations, safety is our key concern and we will consider whether there is a need to provide guidance in future on this issue.” The Health & Safety Executive, whose investigations into the child’s death are on-going, have already contacted both Stone Federation Great Britain and the National Fireplace Association offering to work with them on developing standards for fixing stone fireplaces. The National Fireplace Association says they have also been in touch with British Standards Institution and want to try to develop a general British Standard for installing fireplaces, which they say is not adequately covered by BS1251. It is believed that there had been a similar case of a child being killed by a falling stone fire surround in 2003.

Comments

These dreadful incidents (reports 145 and 166) add to the tally of small children who have died from the sudden and unexpected collapse of walls over the years. The security of mantelpiece fixings is apparently receiving attention and this is welcome. The problem of free standing wall failures, particularly when they are old, is difficult to assess but Local Authorities and engineers generally can help by drawing attention to obviously defective or badly maintained walls which may be dangerous.

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