The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A verdict of misadventure has been recorded after three foreign nationals died in a Spalding house fire.
Sylwester Grabczewsk (42), Marian Laczynski (38) and Pawel Lazarewicz (53) all died after a blaze at Leathercote House in Tower Lane, Spalding, on May 1 this year.
An inquest held at Boston Coroners Court heard how the three men had been drinking heavily during the day and post mortem reports revealed they all had more than four-and-a-half times the legal drink-driving limit of alcohol in their system.
The inquest also heard how they would regularly cover the smoke alarms in their bedrooms with plastic carrier bags to allow them to smoke in their rooms.
Recording the verdict of misadventure, coroner Murray Spittal felt the amount of alcohol in their systems would have severely compromised their ability to escape the blaze which the inquest heard had probably been started by a discarded cigarette which, tests revealed, didn’t meet the required fire safety standards.
Landlady of the property Tricia Pite had earlier told the inquest that she had encountered a few issues with her three tenants over their drinking which had affected their ability to work.
They were behind on their rent and, on occasions, would hide from Mrs Pite when she came to collect it.
She commented: “They were too drunk to work and very frequently intoxicated. I had given Marian Laczynski his notice to leave because he was behind on his rent.”
Mrs Pite added that the property had several fire extinguishers in place and regular checks were made on the smoke alarms which, she said, had been done on the afternoon of the fire.
She added: “They were drunk and singing loudly on the afternoon of the fire. I tested the fire alarm in a bid to make some noise to try and shut them up.
“They just laughed though because they knew what I was trying to do.
“I put notices up about not smoking in rooms and, although I never physically saw them, I knew they were covering up the detectors which we’d had strong words about.”
Tenant Piotr Lowandowski, who had been away working on the day of the fire, added that the smoke alarms made a loud, piercing sound when tested, but were regularly covered up by some of the tenants in their rooms so they could smoke.
He told the inquest: “It happened often. I am a non-smoker and spoke to them about it. I asked them to stop because it stank the whole house out.
“They were very often drunk which affected their balance and behaviour. Their judgement was impaired by drink.”
Dalia Palivoniene, who was also a tenant in the property with her husband Jonas, added that the smoke alarms in the property were even sensitive to cooking.
She said: “Sylwester, Marian and Pawel were very rarely sober. They used to smoke in their rooms and I got the impression that the cigarettes were imported.”
Peter Wiles, a station manager with Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, told the inquest that the property was well alight when the emergency services arrived on the scene.
The fire was spreading rapidly as firefighters started searching the property where they discovered Marian Laczynski in the hallway.
The roof on the building started to collapse and the firefighters were withdrawn until the fire was suppressed.
They then contained the fire before re-entering the building where Pawel Lazarewicz was found in the front bedroom. A further search then found Sylwester Grabczewsk in the same room buried under some debris.
Mr Wiles explained: “The front bedroom was totally destroyed. The fire had consumed everything in it.
“There was a thick tar-like sooty smoke throughout the property which is conducive to a fire being likely started by carelessly discarded cigarette and smoking materials.
“There wouldn’t have been that sort of damage if it had been an electrical fault.
“We tested some cigarettes that we found in a second bedroom and they didn’t conform to the fire safety standards. They were of the bootleg variety.
“Covering the smoke detector made it non-operational and the high level of alcohol would have affected their ability to react.
“If they were asleep in a drunken stupor, the smoke would have put them in an even deeper sleep and made it difficult to wake up.”
The pathologist’s report had stated that Marian had 365mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his body, Pavel 385 and Sylwester 358 – the legal drink-drive limit is 80mg.
