Washing machine fire kills elderly man

An elderly man is thought to have been killed in a matter of seconds after inhaling cyanide when his washing machine went up in flames last year.

John Russell, 80, who lived in Lower Morden is thought to have died after trying to extinguish a washing machine fire in his kitchen on 18^th September 2010.

London Fire Brigade reported that Mr Russell’s washing machine was set alight due to an electrical fault and the flames then spread to other nearby flammable materials.

Mr Atkinson from the London Fire Brigade said: “We believe that, at some point, he intervened and probably tried to tackle the fire by shutting the door behind him to keep it confined. Unfortunately that exacerbated the situation for him. He seemed to be an old-school type of gentleman but it would have been better to have left it.”

A verdict of accidental death was found and coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “I find that, on the balance of probabilities, it was something as toxic as cyanide that killed him very quickly indeed before he could have been burned. No smoke alarms were fitted but would it have prevented this death? I suspect it would not have done.”