Inquest: Parents of Tom Hill from Stoney Cross, who was killed by faulty gas heater at Glenmark Cottage, near Tarfside, in Angus, Scotland, call for more warnings of carbon monoxide dangers

PARENTS of a New Forest teenager who was killed by a faulty gas heater are angry that 10 years on “nothing has been done” to protect others.

An inquest at Winchester this week heard how Tom Hill, from Stoney Cross, near Lyndhurst, died in the bathroom of “idyllic” Glenmark Cottage, near Tarfside, in Angus, Scotland, while on holiday with his girlfriend Charlotte Beard and her family in October 2015.

He had gone for a bath and turned on a portable LPG heater in the bathroom. When he failed to respond to knocking at the door, it was forced open with an axe and Tom was found kneeling on the floor unconscious.

Charlotte’s father Mark told the inquest how he could smell “unburnt gasses” in the room in which the window was painted shut. Tom died in an ambulance on his way to hospital.

Tom’s parents Jerry and Alison Hill are calling for a national campaign highlighting how lethal CO is, the importance of CO alarms and what people should do if one goes off.

They would also like to see the kind of heater which caused Tom’s death at the age of 18 banned.

Mr Hill said: “We wouldn't have been aware of the danger of carbon monoxide ourselves before Tom's death.

“We think that most people aren't. There's not a mass TV or social media campaign like they have with smoke alarms.

“But carbon monoxide can kill in seconds, faster than smoke, and you can’t see, taste or smell it. It is vital that if the alarm goes off you get out immediately. But most people still don’t know that.”

During the inquest, Mr Beard said there was a CO alarm at the cottage which went off the night before Tom’s death on 28th October but as it was in the kitchen he assumed that the gas fridge, or cooker, had set it off.

He said: “I turned them all off and opened the window. It never occurred to me that we should all get out.”

The inquest heard how a warning that the heater, which was also damaged, should only be used in a large room with ventilation could only be seen when changing the gas bottle.

Tom had won a scholarship to study aqua agriculture at Stirling University, a subject which his father said he was “very passionate” about, along with the environment.

Mr Hill added: “He didn’t have a long life but in the short life he had he really made the most of it.”

He told how he was woken at home by police who told him his son had died in an accident. His parents, along with their other teenage son, then made the 800-mile drive to Scotland where they had to identify Tom’s body.

His inquest was delayed by a fatal-accident inquiry in Scotland and criminal proceedings against cottage owners Burghill Farms, and Piers Le Cheminant who rented it. They had admitted exposing holidaymakers to the risk of death.

The company was fined £120,000 and Mr Le Cheminant £2,000. The inquiry found that Tom’s death was avoidable after hearing how the CO alarm had gone off when other holidaymakers had been at the cottage.

A gas engineer had been called out but after checking the heater he had put it back into the bathroom.

Speaking after the inquest, Tom’s parents said they raised at the inquiry the fact there were no warning signs about CO at the holiday let: “You have these big red signs for what to do in a fire, but nothing about carbon monoxide.

“It should be mandatory that there are clear warnings about carbon monoxide. It angers us that nothing has been done since Tom died that could protect others.

“We are also surprised that these types of heaters are still on sale, we would like to see them banned.”

The couple, who now live in Salisbury, are working with charity CO-Gas Safety, for which they recently raised £5,000 in a charity mountain walk.

President of the charity Stephanie Trotter said deaths from CO poisoning are “just the tip of the iceberg”, adding: “It’s all the other cases of low-level poisoning that cause all sorts of brain and neurological injuries that most people don’t even know are caused by CO.”

Coroner Jason Pegg recorded a conclusion of accidental death for Tom, and said he would be preparing a ‘preventing future deaths’ report about the lack of warnings on LPG heaters about their use in small rooms.