Kellyanne Rose Elizabeth Kemble, 47, and her son Kelly Otis Faith Kerr, 11, were alone in their house on the night of July 3 last year, as Ms Kemble’s partner was away working on a charter boat.
The night was cold, dipping below zero degrees, and they often kept the log-burner door open and ran heaters in an attempt to keep the 1950s house warm.
Ms Kemble and her partner usually slept in the lounge and her son slept in his room, sometimes on the floor.
In the house was an internal storeroom used as a garage which contained flammable fuels, tools, portable gas cylinders, paint and other combustible materials.
About 3.35am on July 4, neighbours heard explosions and yelling, and saw flames coming from the house.
They called emergency services, but the house was engulfed in flames.
Ms Kemble was found in the lounge, and her son was found in his bedroom under the bed.
In her findings, released today, Coroner Heather McKenzie said it could not be established whether Kelly was hiding under the bed, or had been sleeping there as he was known to sleep on the floor at times.
Police completed an investigation into the fire and found no suspicious circumstances.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) investigation found the fire started in Kelly’s room, caused by a 3kW industrial-type heater.
"The fire started either from radiant heat igniting combustible materials [primarily bedding] or the overheating of electrical components to either the lead, plug, wall socket or multi-box," Coroner McKenzie’s findings said.
Fenz identified the four possible causes were: the heater’s lead or plug overheating causing ignition, the heater malfunctioning, radiant heat igniting the bedding, or combustible materials were draped or had fallen on to the heater and ignited, or a combination of these causes.
There were no signs the fire started near the wood burner or anywhere else in the lounge, and the fire’s spreading was helped by the north-northeast wind, the Fenz investigation found.
A forensic pathologist found 194mg of alcohol in Ms Kemble’s blood — the legal limit to drive is 50mg — as well as normal usage amounts of tramadol, a heart medication and caffeine.
The postmortem revealed Kelly and his mother died from inhalation of products of combustion, but Ms Kemble would have died faster because of an underlying heart condition.
Coroner McKenzie agreed with those findings and did not make any recommendations as she considered Fenz had sufficient safety information available on the subject.
— Allied Media
