Details have emerged about a house fire that killed a young girl in England who was sleeping in her bedroom when the blaze broke out in the middle of the night. Despite Chamiah Brindle’s cries for help, her family was unable to reach her because her room was the starting point of the fire. Sadly, she died quickly from her injuries. Now, more than a year after her death, the origin of the fire has been revealed.
On October 6, 2025, an inquest heard that the fire that killed the 6-year-old was started by a vape left charging in her room, the BBC reported. The lithium-ion battery of the vape caught fire in the attic bedroom the girl, who was known as Miah, shared with an older sibling. Ultimately, the fire was ruled accidental.
Fire officer Dean Thornton, who spoke at the inquest, said eight vapes were discovered in the bedroom. A rechargeable device charger was found near the bed, which was identified as where the fire started, per the BBC. Thornton revealed that he couldn’t be fully sure about why the vape caught fire.
The origin of the vape has been investigated, but no one could track down where it had come from.
Tracey Moore, the girl’s mother, also spoke at the inquest. She explained that she was woken up around 4 a.m. September 10, 2024, by one of her daughters screaming about a fire. At the time, three adults and 10 children were in the home.
Moore said she had checked that everyone was out of the house when she noticed Miah was missing. She went back into the home with her partner and one of her sons, according to the BBC. She could hear the little girl screaming for help, but they were unable to reach her after removing the door. There was too much smoke and flames.
Firefighters were not able to save the little girl. She was pronounced dead less than 20 minutes after the fire started.
Coroner Ivan Cartwright, was told the door to the attic bedroom was “unusually” stiff and had to be broken down, the outlet reported. Additionally, the hard-wired smoke alarms in the house had been removed months before the fire. There were skylights in the room, but they had been nailed shut to keep the children from climbing onto the roof.
A post-mortem examination of the girl found she died from “inhalation of the products of combustion.”
In a statement released by the family after her death, her mother called her “the ray of sunshine that shone when your day was cloudy,” according to the BBC in another report.
Her father said, “She was full of life and very loving, extremely caring, full of smiles for everyone, always happy and playing.
“It is still hard for me to come to terms with what has happened and still not real to me that my daughter is gone, and I will never see her again,” he continued. I will miss my daughter so dearly, but she will always be in my thoughts and heart. Rest in peace, my little angel, until we meet again.”
A 14-year-old girl arrested in connection with the fire was released with no further action.
