JOHNSON: FATHER AND SON KILLED IN HOUSE BLAZE

A son was killed in a fire when he stayed in the house to try and rescue his father, an inquest heard today (Thurs).
 
Max Johnson, 39, tried to help 74-year-old father George from bed, while his mother Janet went to raise the alarm.

But both men were quickly overwhelmed by inhaling toxic soot after the flames took hold at their home  in Eltham, southeast London.

The father was pronounced dead at the scene while his son, a civil servant, suffered irreversible brain damage from lack of oxygen and died two days later, Southwark Coroner’s Court heard.

Tragically the house had not been fitted with a smoke alarm which could have saved them.

Investigators believe the fire was started when smoker Mr Johnson Jnr left a cigarette smoldering in a spare room at their home in Grangehill Road, Eltham.

Mrs Johnson, 71, who escaped with minor smoke inhalation, told the inquest how her son had been out on a date that evening and returned before midnight.

She was so upset she left the inquest in tears after her statement outlining the tragedy had been read out.
 
Mrs Johnson said: ‘When he arrived George and I were still in the living room talking.

‘Max only joined us for about 10 minutes, talking to George about football.

‘Then the three of us went upstairs to bed.

‘That was the last we saw of him until I heard him shouting.’

At around 4am on January 23, this year, he appeared on the landing yelling: ‘Oh my God. Get up Mum, it’s a fire.’

The mother continued: ‘I got out of bed and our door was open.

‘I looked at Max, who was sweating profusely, covered in black soot.

‘His face was completely black.

‘He was gasping for breath. His chest was heaving.

‘I looked into the computer room.

‘Directly facing the window I saw a complete wall of flame from below the window to the ceiling.

‘I could hear sparks crackling and popping.’

She told Max to help her husband up while she went down to call 999, but the landline was dead.

Mrs Johnson then returned to her bedside to find her mobile inside her handbag, and her husband and son were still there.

She added: ‘Max went round to George’s side of the bed.

‘George appeared very confused and didn’t know what was happening.’

The father asked: ‘What’s happened?’ and his son reassured him: ‘It’s all right Dad, I’m here.’

Mrs Johnson continued: ‘I picked up my handbag which I always keep by the bed, and went downstairs to call 999.

‘I was panic stricken.

‘At this point my nextdoor neighbour Steve came round and asked what was happening.

‘He saw the fire, which you could now see coming out of the computer room door.’

She said the neighbour only got up three stairs but was beaten back by flames.

Mrs Johnson added: ‘I tried to go back up and he stopped me.

‘At this point, I saw the cat trying to go upstairs to so I grabbed her and ran through the kitchen into the back garden.

‘I then shut the back door to stop her coming back in and returned to the hallway.

‘I was on the phone to 999 throughout this time.

‘The fire engines then arrived and I shouted at the fire officers to hurry up and told them two people were trapped inside.’

Mrs Johnson, a retired teaching assistant, went to the neighbour’s home but shortly afterwards a police officer broke the news her husband, a retired dock worker, had died.

She said: ‘This officer told me George had died and Max had arrested, but the ambulance had managed to resuscitate him.’

Her son was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in nearby Woolwich, where he was kept on a ventilator.

‘We were told after 24 hours that the prognosis for Max wasn’t good,’ Mrs Johnson said.

‘On 25 January we said our goodbyes to him at 1800 hours.

‘At 2300 hours we turned off his life support machine.

‘Max was a smoker, he smoked about 20 cigarettes a day.

‘He used to put the ends in a plastic bag and throw them away.

‘He would only smoke in the computer room and bedroom.’

The inquest heard the smoke was so thick it forced a paramedic in a rapid response car to pull over 100 yards down the street while it thinned.

Donna Williams, of London Ambulance Service, said Max was brought out of the building by firemen shortly after she arrived.

‘He didn’t have a heartbeat when he first came out,’ added Mrs Williams.

Pathologist Dr Peter Jerreat said he had a 58 per cent ‘fatal level’ of carbon monoxide in his system following the ‘inhalation of fire fumes’.

A post mortem on the son concluded he had died of hypoxic brain injury, where the brain was starved of oxygen by smoke.

Watch Manager Gary Dyer, of London Fire Brigade, said: ‘We found a number of lighters and cigarettes.

‘There is a 95 per cent chance this was started by cigarettes.

‘If there was a working smoke alarm in the property that would have alerted the occupants at the time of the fire.’

Deputy Assistant Coroner Peter Straker said: ‘The evidence has been clear and uncontentious.

‘The deceased in this case, George and Max Johnson, have died as the result of an accident.’

Gemma O’Brien paid tribute to her father and brother outside court. She said: ‘They were very loved and are very missed.’

In the aftermath of the blaze, books and blackened possessions were piled on the front lawn.

Shocked neighbours described Mr Johnson — who had lived in the house for more than 40 years — as a ‘lovely, cheery man’ and a ‘true gentleman’.
 
John Smith, 73, who lives opposite, said tearfully: ‘He was one of nature’s true gentlemen. He always had a smile and a cheery hello.’
 
‘I’ll miss seeing him around. He was well known, you would talk to people who you wouldn’t dream would know him — but they would.’
 
Verdicts: Accidental Death.
ends