The family of a young mother-of-ten who died in a house fire say they still have no idea what started the blaze that tragically took her life. Kelly-Marie Watton was tragically pronounced dead at the scene in the early hours of June 20, 2021, an inquest heard. The 32-year-old was alone in the house when the fire took hold.
The coroner at the inquest, Kate Sutherland, concluded that Ms Watton's death was an accident. However the family have still been left without answers as to how the fire started, with investigation work at the time of Ms Watton's death showing several possible alternative scenarios.
The inquest heard how the investigation by the fire service provided several possible explanations for the cause of the fire. They could not discount an electrical fault, a poorly discarded cigarette nor a deliberate attempt on Ms Watton's behalf to ignite the fire due to her possible state of mind at the time as potential causes of the fire. The security of the house was also compromised due to a missing window pane in the back door.
It was heard Ms Watton was known to smoke in the living room, though any trace of a cigarette at the scene would have been destroyed by the fire, the coroner said. The missing window pane also allowed for more oxygen to flow through the room which accelerated the fire which went on to spread across the first floor of the two-storey end-of-terrace house.
Read more: Tribute paid to 'much adored' mum-of-10 killed in house fire
The fire started in the corner of the living room on the ground floor where a pile of clothes, a wicker storage basket and a lamp were located. A television was also located nearby as was a "partially melted" lighter, according to the fire investigator who could not determine the exact cause of the blaze due to the number of possible causes.
Now the family of Ms Watton, who was one of six siblings, have spoken about the trauma of not knowing the circumstances surrounding their sister's death in the last few hours of her life. Her younger sister, Danielle Watton, 26, said the family have not been able to get "closure" and grieve for Ms Watton.
Speaking on behalf of the family she said: "We’re not too pleased with it [the inquest], we still don’t know how the fire started, we haven’t got closure. The fire investigator gave his evidence, he put it down to three possibilities, which were an electrical fault, smoking a cigarette or deliberate. The coroner then decided she doesn’t know what caused it but feels it’s more of an accident than it was deliberate and so that’s all she can say. There’s no certainty at all about what caused it. We just wanted closure from it all."
CTV footage taken from a camera from across the road on the Holway estate in Holywell, Flintshire, showed how the living room light was switched on at 12.08am and switched off shortly afterwards.
By 12.33am, the footage showed smoke inside the house with the fire visible by 12.40am. A neighbour alerted the fire service at 1.13am by which time the fire had fully developed, according to fire investigator Timothy Owen who appeared as a witness at the court in Ruthin County Hall.
The postmortem revealed that Ms Watton's body, which was heavily sooted, had a blood alcohol level of 302mg per 100ml at the time of her death. Levels above 300mg can lead to a loss consciousness, Kate Sutherland, assistant coroner for North Wales east and central, heard. Traces of cocaine and prescribed medication were also found in Ms Watton's system.
Danielle said the family have spent the last ten months speculating what caused the fire, whether it was deliberate, or whether it was a genuine accident and Ms Watton was unable to escape. They say they were hoping to gain answers from the inquest.
"In our head, that’s three completely different scenarios. And all the coroner could say was that it was probably an accident. We don’t even know what type of accident — was it an electric accident so we can speak to the council to prevent it from happening again? Nobody can tell us," said Danielle.
"If we knew then we could have closure, we could deal with it. But we have had no answers at all. The thoughts that go around in your head: was it deliberate, or was it a genuine accident and she wasn’t able to get herself away from the situation? And like we said, they couldn’t test the electrics because they were all burned so badly. Kelly smoked in the house so it could have been caused by that but she also had no window on her back door so it could also have been deliberate."
The inquest heard how Ms Watton's partner, Daniel Cooper, was with his friends that evening and drove to the property after one of them heard of what had happened. After arriving at the scene just before the fire service, Mr Cooper, who did not have the keys to the property at the time, attempted to kick the door down several times before he finally gained entry by running through it.
Mr Cooper, with whom Cardiff-born Ms Watton had five children, found his partner of six years on the sofa in the living room which was covered in smoke and soot. He then dragged her out of the house and attempted CPR.
Danielle said she first heard that there had been a fire at her sister's house at around 2am. Danielle lives in Cardiff but has several family members living in north Wales who contacted her: "We were all asleep and it was about 2:05 in the morning, my phone was on vibrate and it was going off and off constantly and when I went to check it I had like five, six, seven missed calls from different family members.
"I was one of the first people to find out, I was told ‘there’s been a house fire at your sister's house, she’s been dragged out and they are doing CPR but it’s not looking good’."
She said she went to wake up their father and they both started to make their way to Flintshire. Around 30 minutes into the three and a half hour drive she received a call to say Ms Watton had been pronounced dead. Her father, who was travelling in a separate vehicle, was unaware about his daughter's death until they arrived.
Describing the horror of the journey, Danielle said: "I did feel helpless. It wouldn’t have happened if I were there. My dad didn’t know and was still positive thinking ‘we’ll get there and she will be in the hospital but she will be fine’. It was traumatising. The roads were just so long it was never-ending, it was the longest three hours of my life."
Danielle and her father immediately went to the hospital where Ms Watton was being cared for but due to the distressing state of her body were not allowed to see her, something Danielle says they all struggled with.
"We went straight to the hospital and she was in the mortuary, they wouldn't even let us see her because she was badly burned and already in the chapel of rest. We were desperate, my dad wanted to identify her, he was at the point where he was ready to run through the chapel of rest, he needed to get to her."
They then went to the property but due to investigations taking place they weren't allowed into the house: "The top window was blown out, and the house was black and all taped off. We weren’t allowed in there because it wasn’t safe. We wanted to go in and see what the damage was, where Kelly was when it happened, but we weren’t allowed."
Ms Watton's body was then brought down to Cardiff for her funeral where the family were able to see her and say goodbye.
"At the funeral home we took her clothes and things to make her comfy but they said they weren’t even able to dress her. We did see her, it wasn’t a very nice sight, we don’t want to think about it too much," said Danielle.
Ms Watton had ten children, including triplets. Her oldest child is now 17. Fortunately, none of them were in the property when the blaze took hold. They are all now staying with different family members.
"I think the eldest have taken it the worst, the other ones are a bit younger and didn’t have that many memories and such so in a way, it’s the best in an awful situation," said Danielle. "We’re such a big family and we have done so well in looking after each other but she was the eldest and she was what kept us together."
Ms Watton was the eldest of six siblings, and was described as "caring" and "bubbly" by Danielle. In paying tribute to her she said: “She was loud, lively, bubbly, always center of attention. She was the eldest sister so was always so caring growing up, as much as we used to fight like siblings do. She was so caring, she cared for us all. She was the life and soul of the party as they say. My other sister and brother were really close since she moved to north Wales, my dad went to see her regularly, we were in touch every day. We all miss her so much, it’s such a horrible thing to go through. We are all just heartbroken, we just want closure. We just hope she is watching us and she is proud of us and we will do everything we can to live for her."
