Girl, two, killed in farm blaze...Man Arrested

Tragedy which, again, hi-lights the dangers of leaving babies and young children alone.

Girl, two, killed in farm blaze


Two-year-old Isobel June Dobson died after she was trapped in a burning van at Hessle Farm in Wragby, near Wakefield
A two-year-old girl died after her stepfather and mother were beaten back by flames as they tried in vain to rescue her from a burning van during a fire at a farm.

Isobel June Dobson was trapped in the van with her one-year-old half-sister when the fire broke out at Hessle Farm, in Wragby, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, at around 5.30pm on Friday.

Isobel's 22-year-old mother and 37-year-old stepfather were injured as they rescued the baby from the vehicle and then tried unsuccessfully to free the little girl.

A fire service spokesman said the one-year-old girl had been rescued by her stepfather before emergency services arrived at the farm to find two barns and the van, which was parked nearby, were ablaze.

Isobel was initially reported as missing but her body was found late on Friday night.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Police have confirmed that two-year-old Isobel June Dobson, from South Elmsall, died following a fire at Hessle Farm, Wragby."

He added: "Isobel and her one-year-old half-sister were in the van when the fire broke out and, despite efforts by her 37-year-old stepfather and mother, they were only able to rescue the one-year-old girl before being beaten back by the flames and injured."

Police said the man and the baby received treatment for burns at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield overnight and were discharged.

Police said the family were at the farm tending to a horse before the fire broke out. A number of horses are kept at the farm in livery stables, neighbours said.

The cause of the fire is still unknown but it is not believed to be suspicious and a joint investigation is being carried out between the police and fire service.


http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/fire-crews-tackle-fatal-farm-blaze

Comment by Tina Jane

WHY OH WHY WERE TOO LITTLE BABIES LEFT ALONE IN A VAN.....SUCH A TRAGIC UNNECESSARY DEATH OF SUCH A LOVELY LITTLE GIRL...RIP LITTLE ONE...LETS HOPE OTHERS LEARN FROM THE TRAGEDY THAT HAS HAPPENED AND DONT LEAVE THEIR CHILDREN ALONE IN CARS OR VANS FOR ANY PERIOD OF TIME ....ITS SIMPLY NOT SAFE TO DO THIS.....

I AM SURE THE PARENTS HERE WILL HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES AND SADLY ONE PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRL IS NO LONGER HERE TO LIVE HERS.

Yes, Autumn, such a sad story and so unnecessary

Autumn

This is such an awful tragedy - they showed a picture of the two year old on Sky - she looked so sweet.

I can't bear to think that parents would do this. There must have been a reason to leave them in the van. Maybe they were in sight and if there were horses moving around they could have got trampled. The mother should have stayed with the children.

Angelique wrote:Autumn

This is such an awful tragedy - they showed a picture of the two year old on Sky - she looked so sweet.

I can't bear to think that parents would do this. There must have been a reason to leave them in the van. Maybe they were in sight and if there were horses moving around they could have got trampled. The mother should have stayed with the children.

From what I've seen on the news about this tragedy, Angelique, it looks like the fire started in a barn and spread quickly to a second barn where the van was near to. According to an eye witness everything was tinder dry as it hadn't rained for ages and there was a strong wind, which would have caused the fire to spread fast. The fire engine arrived just as the second barn caught fire but sadly too late to save the little girl.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8800834/Girl-2-killed-in-stables-fire-tragedy-in-West-Yorkshire.html

The police said the family, from South Elmsall, had asked for their privacy to be respected at “this very difficult time.”
A joint investigation is ongoing between the police and fire service to establish the exact circumstances leading to the fire.
Mr Redfearn added that the fire was now “substantially” out but firefighters remained on the scene.
When emergency crews arrived yesterday afternoon a woman was screaming that a child was in the vehicle. A witness said: “I first noticed smoke from some distance away and went to see what was happening. As I approached I could see the back of a barn and the fire was spreading rapidly.
“You could feel the heat. Everything is tinder dry here at the moment because it hasn’t rained for so long. The wind was quite strong too. Just the one barn was on fire and just as the first fire engine turned up the second barn caught fire.
“I could see at least four people were trying to rescue their horses, taking them away from the barns and tying them up in another field.
“One woman was shouting at the fire fighters as they arrived that there was a child in the van.”
Cordons put in place on main roads around the isolated farm had today been removed but smaller roads leading up to the property were still blocked off.
Firefighters at the scene were pumping water from pipes in the nearby village of Brackenhill, around one mile away from the farm.
Hessle Farm is understood to offer stabling for keen young riders to keep their own ponies and is thought to be owned or rented by an elderly woman who runs livery stables.

Just doing my housework but had to log on to say a 37yr old man has been arrested!
Step father happens to be 37 years old.
Dear god! Here we go again!

wjk wrote:Just doing my housework but had to log on to say a 37yr old man has been arrested!
Step father happens to be 37 years old.
Dear god! Here we go again!

Man, 37, arrested over barn blaze in which two-year-old girl dies

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2043980/Man-37-arrested-barn-blaze-year-old-girl-dies.html#ixzz1ZcqKGbBC

A 37-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a barn fire which claimed the life of a two-year-old girl, police said today.

The man is being questioned in connection with the blaze at Hessle Farm, Wragby, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in which Isobel Dobson died on Friday evening.

West Yorkshire Police said the fire was now being treated as suspicious and inquiries were ongoing to determine the cause.

Horse-loving Isobel died despite a desperate bid by her mother and stepfather to save her from the burning barn.

She had been trapped in a van with her one-year-old half-sister when the fire erupted in two neighbouring barns last night at a farm in Wragby, Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Her mother and stepfather managed to pull their youngest daughter from the burning vehicle but were beaten back by flames when they tried to free Isobel.

The toddler's body was eventually recovered from the vehicle by emergency crews late last night.

The father and his youngest daughter were discharged from Pinderfields hospital in Wakefield today as firefighters continued to struggle to put out the flames.

Five fire engines were still at the farm in Wragby, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, this morning after reaching the scene where two barns and a van were ablaze at around 5.30pm yesterday.

A police spokesman said: 'Police have confirmed that two-year-old Isobel June Dobson, from South Elmsall, died last night following a fire at Hessle Farm.

wjk wrote:Just doing my housework but had to log on to say a 37yr old man has been arrested!
Step father happens to be 37 years old.
Dear god! Here we go again!

I have just read that on Sky News and it hit me like a brick that the step-father was 37 years old.

Stepfather held over Death Blaze - Cotswold Journal 2nd Oct 2011

West Yorkshire Police said a 37-year-old man, from Wakefield, was being questioned in connection with the fire, which is now being treated as suspicious.

A spokesman said: "A 37-year-old Wakefield man has now been arrested in connection with the incident and is currently in police custody. Inquiries into the cause of the fire, which is now being treated as suspicious, are ongoing and a joint investigation is being carried out by West Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service."

Emergency services were called to the fire at about 5.30pm on Friday and found a van and two barns ablaze on their arrival.

Isobel and her half-sister were in the van when the fire broke out.

The 37-year-old man and the girls' 22-year-old mother rescued the baby from the vehicle but were unable to free Isobel. The two-year-old's body was found on Friday night and police confirmed she had died.

A police spokesman said on Saturday: "Isobel and her one-year-old half-sister were in the van when the fire broke out and, despite efforts by her 37-year-old stepfather and mother, they were only able to rescue the one-year-old girl before being beaten back by the flames and injured."

The man and his baby daughter received treatment for burns at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield and were discharged later.

http://www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk/news/national/news/9283378.Stepfather_held_over_death_blaze/

Autumn

Thank you for your posts with further news reports.

Do we know for sure that step-father and 37 year old are one and the same?

Is it possible he was a smoker?

Angelique wrote:Autumn

Thank you for your posts with further news reports.

Do we know for sure that step-father and 37 year old are one and the same?

Is it possible he was a smoker?

Hi Angelique the local Yorkshire papers are saying the step-father has been arrested....no name released yet. Police say they are treating the cause of fire as suspicious so presume that would include possibility of cigarette starting the blaze. What strikes me as a bit odd is that the second barn where the van was parked caught fire as the fire engine arrived. There were a number of people on the farm as an eye witness told how horses were being led away from the fire as the fire-engine arrived on the scene. Whoever called the fire brigade to report the first barn ablaze must have raised the alarm....people were rescuing their horses, did no-one notice the van near the second barn? Where were the couple when the fire alarm was raised....if they were within site of the van they would have surely noticed the first barn on fire and panic breaking out all over the place. Having said that, fire can spread very quickly....the strong wind and dryness would have helped the fire sweep through both barns very fast. Its a miracle that the baby who was rescued survived with only minor injuries.

This is a very sad case and shows just how helpless young children are when fire breaks out. One of the things that really angers me in the reporting of the Madeleine case is the way the papers blithely reported that the McCanns left a door unlocked 'in case of fire'. Not once did I ever read in a single newspaper any criticism of the fact that acknowledging the risk of fire and yet still going out and leaving the children alone was an astonishingly reckless thing for any parent to do. If you thought for even half a second that there was the smallest risk of fire and that you needed therefore to leave a door unlocked, how could you actually walk away from your children and leave them there? I don't expect ever to see an answer to that question from either of the McCanns or any of their friends or relatives, but I'd have thought at least one journalist might have picked up on this craziness and made a point of drawing attention to it. Fires start in houses, flats, nursing homes, hotels ... anywhere there's electricity there's a risk of fire, everyone knows that, just as everyone knows smoke alarms aren't infallible and smoke can kill long before any flames are visible from outside a building. Everyone including the McCanns ... yet it seems they still sat eating and drinking in the Tapas bar as though without a care in the world. Truly mind- boggling behaviour. IMO.

Dimsie wrote:This is a very sad case and shows just how helpless young children are when fire breaks out. One of the things that really angers me in the reporting of the Madeleine case is the way the papers blithely reported that the McCanns left a door unlocked 'in case of fire'. Not once did I ever read in a single newspaper any criticism of the fact that acknowledging the risk of fire and yet still going out and leaving the children alone was an astonishingly reckless thing for any parent to do. If you thought for even half a second that there was the smallest risk of fire and that you needed therefore to leave a door unlocked, how could you actually walk away from your children and leave them there? I don't expect ever to see an answer to that question from either of the McCanns or any of their friends or relatives, but I'd have thought at least one journalist might have picked up on this craziness and made a point of drawing attention to it. Fires start in houses, flats, nursing homes, hotels ... anywhere there's electricity there's a risk of fire, everyone knows that, just as everyone knows smoke alarms aren't infallible and smoke can kill long before any flames are visible from outside a building. Everyone including the McCanns ... yet it seems they still sat eating and drinking in the Tapas bar as though without a care in the world. Truly mind- boggling behaviour. IMO.

Hi Dimsie, it is a very sad case and I can only hope that smoke took the life of the little girl, before the fire burned her body. I know what it's like to lose family in a fire, my cousin, her husband and their baby girl all lost their lives in a fire, caused by a faulty electric heating system, over 30yrs ago. I'm sorry for saying this but I hope that if the stepfather or anyone else, started this fire deliberately, they are not given a soft sentence. We were all devasted when we lost our family members and I can only imagine how the firefighters felt, when they brought out the badly burned dead bodies of my cousin, her husband and their baby girl.

I was appalled when the McCanns said they left their door unlocked in case of a fire. No one asked the McCanns how Madeleine, who was only a toddler herself, was expected to lift the twins out of their cots and get herself and them out of the apartment. In any case, if fire did break out while the children were asleep, it is more than likely that smoke would have killed them.

As you say, what parents would go out and leave their children if they had an inkling that a fire could break out? In fact what parents would go out night after night after night, leaving their children unsupervised? Only parents who didn't give a s**t about their children. The McCanns fall into that catagory.

So sorry to hear of the tragic loss of your family members Kathybelle and how very hard it must be for you to read about the McCanns glibly saying they left the door unlocked incase of fire. Many years ago I was trapped in a house fire and had to jump from the bedroom window to escape...flames and smoke spread so fast there's little time to think straight, inside you are panicking but aware you have to stay calm and act fast if you are to have any hope of getting out alive.

There is just no way that any sane parent could imagine their young children terrified and helpless in a fire then go off out to enjoy themselves, safe in the knowledge that they left the door unlocked on the off chance they would find the door in the thick smoke!

The likes of Lorraine Kelly and Fiona Philips need to think long and hard about the real dangers of leaving children alone. By treating the McCanns as celebrities and giving them Awards, can't they see that they are sending out a very dangerous message to parents who may then think its ok to leave their children alone? Whose to say how many young children are being left alone in potentially dangerous and life-threatening situations on the strength of Kate Garraway's irresponsible 'well, we've all done it haven't we?' comment. .

Update about the step-father who has been arrested.....

Stepfather quizzed over fatal Wragby farm fire

Isobel Dobson died in a van which had caught fire
The stepfather of a two-year-old girl who died in a fire at a farm in West Yorkshire is being questioned on suspicion of her murder.

Isobel Dobson died in a van which caught fire during the blaze at Hessle Farm, in Wragby, near Wakefield, on Friday evening.

Her mother and 37-year-old stepfather rescued one daughter, who is 12-months old, but could not save Isobel.

A 37-year-old Wakefield man arrested on Saturday is being questioned.

Police have revealed that the man in custody is also being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.

The fire at the farm is being treated as suspicious.

A joint investigation by West Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is continuing.

On Saturday, police and firefighters described how the two girls had become trapped in the van and despite the efforts of her stepfather and mother, two-year-old Isobel could not be saved.

The family had been at the farm tending to a horse before the fire broke out in a barn being used to store hay.

kathybelle

I am sorry to hear that you have lost close members of your family through a fire. I am sure I cannot imagine what you feel when reading about this or other reports. Fire is a devastating event.

One would hope that the fundamental principles that children cannot be expected to escape and/or rescue other family members from a fire or other emergency would clarify how at risk these children were. That the McCanns purposely and after consideration, left their children alone in an unlocked apartment is beyond reason.

I am still not clear who has tried to attempt murder - if it was the step-father it makes no sense. He was injured trying to save the children. Unless, of course, he was attempting to murder someone else.

Sorry to hear of your loss kathybelle.

As you said wjk, here we go again.....

kathybelle wrote:

Dimsie wrote:This is a very sad case and shows just how helpless young children are when fire breaks out. One of the things that really angers me in the reporting of the Madeleine case is the way the papers blithely reported that the McCanns left a door unlocked 'in case of fire'. Not once did I ever read in a single newspaper any criticism of the fact that acknowledging the risk of fire and yet still going out and leaving the children alone was an astonishingly reckless thing for any parent to do. If you thought for even half a second that there was the smallest risk of fire and that you needed therefore to leave a door unlocked, how could you actually walk away from your children and leave them there? I don't expect ever to see an answer to that question from either of the McCanns or any of their friends or relatives, but I'd have thought at least one journalist might have picked up on this craziness and made a point of drawing attention to it. Fires start in houses, flats, nursing homes, hotels ... anywhere there's electricity there's a risk of fire, everyone knows that, just as everyone knows smoke alarms aren't infallible and smoke can kill long before any flames are visible from outside a building. Everyone including the McCanns ... yet it seems they still sat eating and drinking in the Tapas bar as though without a care in the world. Truly mind- boggling behaviour. IMO.

Hi Dimsie, it is a very sad case and I can only hope that smoke took the life of the little girl, before the fire burned her body. I know what it's like to lose family in a fire, my cousin, her husband and their baby girl all lost their lives in a fire, caused by a faulty electric heating system, over 30yrs ago. I'm sorry for saying this but I hope that if the stepfather or anyone else, started this fire deliberately, they are not given a soft sentence. We were all devasted when we lost our family members and I can only imagine how the firefighters felt, when they brought out the badly burned dead bodies of my cousin, her husband and their baby girl.

I was appalled when the McCanns said they left their door unlocked in case of a fire. No one asked the McCanns how Madeleine, who was only a toddler herself, was expected to lift the twins out of their cots and get herself and them out of the apartment. In any case, if fire did break out while the children were asleep, it is more than likely that smoke would have killed them.

As you say, what parents would go out and leave their children if they had an inkling that a fire could break out? In fact what parents would go out night after night after night, leaving their children unsupervised? Only parents who didn't give a s**t about their children. The McCanns fall into that catagory.

Sorry to hear about what happened to your family.

Reading that the stepfather has been charged with attempted 'murder', I wonder how the police have come to this conclusion, rather than charging him with manslaughter? Murder needs a motive, and the fire started in a barn, not the van that the children were in. However, if this was an accident it wouldn't be unheard of to leave your young children in a vehicle while you're on the same premises, and within eyesight. Apart from the obvious risk associated with any young child being isolated from their guardian for a while, I don't see a comparison with the McCanns.

The McCanns left babies on their own in an apartment which could only be reached by public pathways. Even if it was possible for them to see a fire breaking out in the apartment, they could never have reached it in time to stop the children being overcome by smoke inhalation.

margaret wrote:Sorry to hear of your loss kathybelle.

As you said wjk, here we go again.....

Thank you Margaret and to everyone else who offered their condolences, regarding the loss of our young family members. The tragedy happened over 30yrs ago but it still feels like it was yesterday.

When I heard that the fire broke out in a barn, that was being used to store hay, I wondered if it was the hay that had caught fire, due to being baled before it was fully dried out. I am only saying this because it happened a livery stables, where my daughter houses her two miniature ponies. The other week a fire broke out at the stables and the cause of the fire was the hay, which was baled before it was fully dried out. Thankfully my daughter's little ponies weren't injured and neither were any of the other horses, but the barn where the hay was stored was destroyed. I had never heard of this happening before and it is quite frightening.

When I heard the fire was suspicious and the stepfather had been arrested, I thought he owned the farm and had deliberately started the fire to get money from the insurance. I have since read that he and his wife were just visiting the farm to tend to a horse so I don't understand what his motives for starting a fire could be.

kathybelle

Right - I should have thought of this having worked for a farmer - but surely this could not have been premeditated - only the farmer who harvested the hay would bale it and it would have sat in a field drying thats why you see them in fields all baled up. Unless he had a field and did it himself. But how could he predict that it would catch fire and when it would happen.

Angelique wrote:kathybelle

Right - I should have thought of this having worked for a farmer - but surely this could not have been premeditated - only the farmer who harvested the hay would bale it and it would have sat in a field drying thats why you see them in fields all baled up. Unless he had a field and did it himself. But how could he predict that it would catch fire and when it would happen.

Hi Angelique, I probably haven't explained myself properly. I did think it was the baled hay that caused the fire, until it was established that the fire was suspicious.

I am now wondering what the stepfather's motives were for starting the fire. Does he own or lease the farm or does he work at the farm as a farm hand? If he doesn't, it sounds as if he had a grudge against the farmer.

Or insurance purposes but he didn't realise that the fire would take hold and spread like it did

Or a grudge against his girlfriend, maybe she was leaving him? I wonder if they're travellers too, otherwise why would the children be sleeping in the van?

kathybelle wrote:

Angelique wrote:kathybelle

Right - I should have thought of this having worked for a farmer - but surely this could not have been premeditated - only the farmer who harvested the hay would bale it and it would have sat in a field drying thats why you see them in fields all baled up. Unless he had a field and did it himself. But how could he predict that it would catch fire and when it would happen.

Hi Angelique, I probably haven't explained myself properly. I did think it was the baled hay that caused the fire, until it was established that the fire was suspicious.

I am now wondering what the stepfather's motives were for starting the fire. Does he own or lease the farm or does he work at the farm as a farm hand? If he doesn't, it sounds as if he had a grudge against the farmer.

Kathybelle, I was just thinking the same thing about a grudge. Perhaps the farmer had told the stepfather to move his horse elsewhere for some reason. I get the impression the horse was just stabled at the farm.

kathybelle

Sorry - my mistake - I sometimes get the wrong end of the story. I tend to skim read. My apologies.

ETA.

Thinking more about this - if he set fire to the bales himself with the intention of killing someone - it would be murder. If it was an accident and he threw say, a cigarette away, it would be involuntary manslaughter. If it was an Insurance scam, it would be murder and fraud. But this doesn't explain why he tried to help save the children.