Inquest into Slacks Creek house fire which killed 11 in 2011 to look at cause of deaths

AN INQUEST into a Brisbane house fire which killed 11 people will consider if the house in which they perished contributed to their deaths.

24/08/2011 NEWS: Top (left to right) Fusi Taufa, 57, Annamaria Taufa, 23 with her children Kalahnie Taufa, 3, Lahaina Taufa, 7, Lafoai Lale, 14, Ardelle Lee, 15, (far right pic on end) Neti Lale. (bottom left to right)Jerry Lale, 18, Paul Lale, 17, Richie Lale, 8, Sela Lale, 10. Pictures of people dead after a house fire at Wagensveldt Street, Slacks Creek. CM-NEWS. 24 August 11. supplied.

AN INQUEST into a Brisbane house fire that killed 11 people – including a mum and her five children – will consider if the house in which they perished contributed to their deaths.

Coroner James McDougall is expected to preside at a pre-inquest hearing in Brisbane today into the deaths of members of two families at Slacks Creek, on Brisbane’s southern outskirts, in August 2011.

Those killed included mum Teukisia Lale and her five children, aged eight to 18, as well as Fusi, Annamaria, La’Haina and Kahlani Taufa and Ardell Lee.

The horror inferno became the worst dwelling fire in Queensland history since the notorious Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel, which claimed the lives of 15, mainly foreign tourists, in June 2000.

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Investigators say the blaze at the Wagensveldt St house was not suspicious.

Coroner’s documents indicate the main areas to be considered include “when, where and how they died and what caused their deaths”.

“(The coroner will consider) circumstances surrounding the deaths, particularly the cause of the fire and any factors that may have prevented (those killed) from escaping,” documents say. “(Also) whether any accommodation issues contributed to the circumstances in which the deaths occurred.”