Girl camper dies after used barbecue is left in tent overnight

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/06/girl-camper-dies-barbecue-carbon-monoxide

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A teenage girl has died at a camp site and three other members of her family have been taken to hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.

West Mercia police said officers were called to the site in Bucknell, South Shropshire, by the ambulance service at around 10am on Sunday. Witnesses said the family had left a used disposable barbecue in their tent overnight.

Detective Inspector Gavin Kinrade said: "I can confirm that we are working with the Shropshire fire and rescue service to investigate this incident. We are treating the girl's death as unexplained but at this stage there do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances."

The girl died at a camp site set in a field next to the Baron at Bucknell pub. Phil and Debra Wright, who own the pub and the camp site, said the four people involved were a mother and father and their two children. They were part of a larger family group including the mother's two sisters and their respective partners and children, staying in a number of tents on the site.

Phil Wright said other group members had become concerned when nobody in the family's tent woke up in the morning.

He said: "They had gone into the tent and found them all unconscious. One of the sisters came and said, 'We need an ambulance urgently'. There was a disposable barbecue which they had used the night before in the porch of the tent. The emergency services were on the scene within five minutes. They worked on the girl for some time but they couldn't save her."

Wright said the family had arrived at the site night and had been planning to stay for the bank holiday weekend. His wife sobbed as she described how the couple had called local paramedics and a nurse who lives nearby, when the alarm was first raised.

West Midlands ambulance service said a man, a woman and a young boy, believed to be 11, were taken from the scene to the Royal Shrewsbury hospital.

A spokeswoman said that crews arrived at the camp to find treatment being carried out on a girl who was in cardiac arrest.

"Ambulance crews continued resuscitation efforts in an attempt to restart the girl's heart. Sadly, despite their best efforts nothing could be done to save the girl and she was confirmed dead on scene. A boy, believed to be 11 years old, was suffering from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning," she said. "Crews and the doctor began oxygen therapy and, due to his serious condition, the boy was airlifted to Royal Shrewsbury hospital for emergency treatment.

"A woman and man were also given oxygen therapy by ambulance crews before being taken by land ambulance to the same hospital for further treatment."