FOUR brothers screamed “there’s a fire here” before they were killed in a house fire after their mum left them alone, a court heard.
Leyton and Logan Hoath, three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, four, died surrounded by rubbish and human faeces in their squalid home.
4
4
Deveca Rose, 29, allegedly left the four children locked inside the Sutton, South London, home alone to go shopping in Sainsbury’s.
The Old Bailey heard how the brothers desperately cried out as flames took over the terraced property just days before Christmas.
London Fire Brigade station officer Darren Woodhams told how they were alerted to the horror by a neighbour.
He added: “He observed the front floor windows were black. He could hear the children’s voices saying there was a fire here over and over.
“A neighbour forced the front door of the property open to try to get into the property to access the children.
“However, due to the fire’s intensity in the front room of the property they were unable to enter.”
Firefighters eventually managed to gain access and discovered the children all unconscious under a bed.
They also found rubbish “all over the floor” and “human excrement”.
Jurors heard that Logan was the first to be declared dead at 8.39pm, followed by Leyton at 8.40pm, Kyson at 9.12pm and Bryson at 9.36pm.
The court heard Rose arrived home to find her terraced home alight.
She at first claimed she had left the children with a woman named Jade – causing firefighters to go back inside to search for her.
But there was no sign of her, with police finding “no trace” of Jade, jurors heard.
An hour before the horror, a neighbour heard Rose “screaming, shouting and swearing” at the children.
She yelled “why would you f***ing do that?” before popping out alone to Sainsbury’s to buy “non-essential” items, it was said.
The court heard a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light sparked the blaze after it ignited a mountain of rubbish on the floor.
The house was squalid, with buckets and pots used as toilets and rubbish left in the bath, it was said.
There was also a mattress and possibly a door on the stairs and the smoke alarm had no batteries.
Social services were engaged with the children between July and September 2021, the court was told.
It came after a GP noted there was a “chaotic home environment”.
Officials found the garden was full of rubbish and there was a “very strong unpleasant smell”, jurors heard.
Rose, of Wallington, South London, denies four counts of manslaughter and the trial continues.
4