Grieving mum seeks smoke alarm boycott By EVAN HARDING - The Southland Times | Tuesday, 18 September 2007

The grieving mother of a man who died in a cabin fire at an Invercargill camping ground wants people to boycott holiday accommodation that does not have smoke alarms installed.  

Carolyn Burt's 35-year-old son, Jason Ross, died of smoke inhalation when a bed in his cabin at Timbertops Motor Camp in Invercargill caught alight in June.  

His cabin did not have a smoke alarm, and was not required to under the Building Act, the Fire Service said.  

Coroner Trevor Savage, who determined Mr Ross' cause of death in the Invercargill Coroner's Court yesterday, was unable to determine whether the fire was an accident or deliberately lit by Mr Ross.  

He suffered from mental illness, Mr Savage said.  

Mrs Burt believed her son had died accidentally after falling asleep with a cigarette in his hand.  

He would not have killed himself because he was at the happiest point in his life with a girlfriend he was about to start a new life with, would never intentionally damaging someone else's property, and would not want to put his mother through the grief she had endured, she said.  

New Zealand Fire Service national headquarters spokesman Mitchell Brown said shortly after Mr Ross' death that owners of camping grounds should install smoke alarms.  

"It seems crazy you would have a place that provides accommodation for whatever number of people that, though it's not a request in the Building Act, you wouldn't put up a $10 to $15 smoke alarm."  

When Mrs Burt and her husband Dave Burt, both living in Christchurch, returned to the cabin her son died in with flowers this week, a smoke alarm had been installed, she said.  

Timbertops Motor Park owner Doreen Heywood said they had installed smoke alarms in the cabins following the tragedy, but cabin renters regularly stole the batteries and alarm fittings, or removed the batteries so they could smoke inside.  

"We have to keep on checking to see if the batteries are still there."  

She had not installed a smoke alarm inside the only caravan on the site and when asked if she would, said: "I guess so. If anything else happened we would get absolutely slaughtered."  

She said she would "probably" continue to replace the stolen smoke alarm fittings and batteries inside the cabins.  

Mrs Burt was angry there were no laws demanding they be installed.  

She said the Government should make smoke alarms compulsory and challenged the public to boycott places that didn't have them.  

"Anyone looking at staying in any of these places should check if smoke alarms are installed, and if they aren't, boycott them, don't stay there, don't take the risk."  

Mrs Burt said if one person now decided against staying in a place without a smoke alarm, her son's death would not have been be in vain.

Invercargill Top 10 Holiday Park owner Philip Todd said smoke alarms had been installed in all his cabins since they were built. Cleaners checked the batteries each time they cleaned a room, replacing them when stolen.  

Coroner Trevor Savage said at Mr Ross' inquest that the cabin he died in complied with construction requirements and was not required to be fitted with smoke alarms, "but all the reasons given to home owners for fitting smoke alarms would comply with the cabins as well".