Boy of four dies in fire trying to rescue his father

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Little Ryan: Died trying to rescue his dad Sean (top)

A boy of four died trying to rescue his sleeping father in a blazing house.

Ryan McHale was being led out of the house by his grandfather as the fire took hold. But he turned back into the smoke and flames calling, "Dad, Dad".

The boy collapsed just a few feet from his father, 26-year-old Sean McHale.

Mr McHale was the first to be pulled to safety, and recovered in hospital. But Ryan died. The tragic story was told to an inquest in Carlisle.

Ryan and his three-year-old brother Owen had been staying with their grandfather for a few days to give their pregnant mother, Gina Graham, a break.

On the morning of the fire, Mr McHale had left the children downstairs with his father, Billy, before going upstairs to sleep.

But their grandfather, who had been working a night shift, could not settle the boys and fell asleep, leaving them to play with a toy car.

Hours later, Mr McHale senior was woken by the sound of a smoke alarm. "I saw Ryan and an orange glow coming from the single bedroom," he said.

"I thought of Sean and went into his room to get him out of bed. He was like a dead weight and wasn't showing any signs of waking. I was trying to pull him and I was shouting at him.

"The boys followed me downstairs – but then Ryan ran back up again.

"Help had arrived at this time and I handed Owen over to a man on the stairs. I went back up the stairs but I was beaten back by the smoke and intense heat.

"I could hear someone shouting 'Dad, Dad'. I thought it was Sean shouting for me but it was Ryan shouting for his dad to wake up."

It is believed the fire may have been started by Ryan copying his father, a car valeter, by playing with a cigarette lighter or matches.

Mr McHale senior said when he returned from his job as a packer at about 5.30am, he found his son, who had drunk a litre of cider and smoked cannabis, staggering round the living room, the inquest heard.

North-East Cumbria Coroner David Osborne said: "There seems little doubt that the reason Ryan ran back up the stairs was a desperate attempt by him to save his father who was lying deeply unconscious in the rear bedroom as a result of him having consumed a significant quantity of alcohol and cannabis.

"Quite how the fire started we do not know for sure. But it seems more than likely that this may have been the result of Ryan either playing with a cigarette lighter or matches.

"Or perhaps even trying to emulate the drug practices which he had probably witnessed on many occasions."

Mr McHale spent two weeks in the Cumberland Infirmary after the fire, in August.

He said he had not smoked the cannabis in front of the children.

The last thing he remembered was going to bed at about 11pm and waking up in hospital days later, he added.

Miss Graham, 23, told the inquest that her boyfriend's drug use was "something he did on a regular basis but not every day".

"It wasn't something that troubled me," she said.

Mr Osborne added: "The circumstances of Ryan's death obviously raise very serious concerns regarding the ability and fitness of the parents, particularly the father, to properly look after the children."

Ryan died of smoke inhalation. An accident verdict was recorded.

 

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