Firefighters find man's dead body amid guest house fire alarm
The remains of 64-year-old Francis Adjetey were found on October 16 – but the grim discovery only came to light as an inquest was opened nine months later.
“A fire alarm tripped in his building,” senior coroner Graeme Irvine told East London Coroner’s Court on Thursday (July 10).
They had been called to 7 Argyle Street, Ilford – the address of the Arran Guest House.
When firefighters began searching the building, Mr Adjetey “was found on his bed, visibly decomposed”.
The Metropolitan Police Service was called to the building.
Officers identified him “through a mosaic of evidence”, Mr Irvine said, but then referred the death to him for investigation.
He ordered an autopsy, but told the court: “Despite a post-mortem, no clear cause of death has been offered. Instead, the pathologist has indicated that the death was unascertained.
“This is an unknown cause of death, leading me to conclude that I must hold an inquest into this matter.”
Coroners are required to hold public investigations into all unnatural or unexplained deaths and whether future similar deaths might be avoided.
He declared Mr Adjetey’s family “interested persons” – a legal status entitling them to view evidence ahead of the final inquest and question any witnesses called to give evidence.
“From the family, could I have a background statement about the deceased in life, his mental and physical health, when he was last seen or heard of and any concerns that they have about his death?” Mr Irvine asked.
He also asked his staff to obtain records from the Met Police investigation and a mortuary report about tests carried out on Mr Adjetey’s body.
The final inquest was provisionally scheduled for January.
The London Fire Brigade refused to release any basic details of the incident, such as what had tripped the alarm or whether there actually turned out to be a fire.
There is no legal reason why it could not answer our simple questions, but it said it would refuse until after the inquest.
The Arran Guest House did not respond to requests for comment.
