Blaze ‘almost certainly’ caused by faulty cable

A fire that killed 14 residents at the Rosepark care home was almost certainly caused by a faulty electrical cable, the inquiry into the tragedy has heard.

Stuart Mortimore, a specialist in fires and explosions at Burgoynes consultancy in Glasgow, said the blaze in Uddingston was extremely unlikely to be the result of flammable gas coming in contact with a circuit breaker.

Instead, he said, it appeared that a highly improbable chain of events had caused a spark to fall from a wire and ignite combustible material at the base of a cupboard.

The inquiry in Motherwell had previously heard suggestions that gas from an aerosol can or a bottle of acetone could have leaked into a circuit breaker that was then triggered by a popping light bulb on the night of the fire, in January 2004.

While this remained a remote possibility, Mortimore said, it would have to have been the culmination of a number of unlikely events.

He said aerosol leaks were “very, very rare”, and gas would be unlikely to penetrate the casing of the circuit breaker.

Even if it did, the spark would probably be too weak, and in any case the resultant flame would most likely fail to get back out.

In addition, “almost split-second timing” would be required for the gas leak to coincide with any spark, as gas from an aerosol would disperse within minutes.

However, Mortimore said that while probability would appear to rule out the faulty wire theory as well as that involving the circuit breaker, physical evidence was a better guide.

The inquiry heard that marks near the faulty cable showed clearly that there had been “arcing” – a process where electrical current passes through air to bridge a gap between two wires.

Although this was “as rare as or possibly even rarer than” the suggested phenomenon involving the circuit breaker, “based on physical evidence one can be almost certain that the fire originated at [the cable],” Mortimore said.

It was also possible that a large bottle of cologne found in the cupboard had aided the fire, he added.

Fragments of glass pulled from the cupboard were pieced together like a jigsaw, and a 250ml bottle of cologne identified.

The shards had soot on their broken edges as well as on the surface, indicating that they had been broken before or during the fire, or at very least in the immediate aftermath of it.

Earlier, the inquiry was shown charred doors from the home and told that they were missing smoke-proof seals, which could be purchased today for as little as £5 but may not have been so commonplace at the time of the blaze.

The inquiry, in Motherwell, continues.