Husband of woman who died saving her children sues glamping company

The husband of a barrister who died saving her children from a caravan blaze has sued a glamping company for more than £200,000 – claiming the fire alarm was ‘faulty’.

Ruth Pingree, 42, was staying at the Suffolk glampsite with her family in July 2022 when the vintage Airstream vehicle became engulfed in flames.

The lawyer helped her two children escape as she remained trapped inside – with her husband outside the caravan.

An inquest previously heard the blaze may have been started by stray campfire coals or a cigarette end surrounded by ‘flammable’ plastic astroturf.

Roland Pingree is now taking glampsite company Happy Days Retro Vacations to court, claiming more than £200,000 ‘for fatal injury, loss and damage suffered by the deceased… pursuant to the Fatal Accidents Act 1976’.

He is also bringing personal injury claims on behalf of himself and his children.

Mr Pingree claims the smoke alarm in the caravan was defective and did not sound, costing his wife vital seconds which might have saved her life.

The inquest into Mrs Pingree’s death, by coroner Darren Stewart and conducted in April last year, heard the family travelled from their home in Thames Ditton, Surrey, to stay with several other families at the site.

Ruth Pingree, 42, was staying at the Suffolk glampsite with her family in July 2022 when the vintage Airsteam vehicle became engulfed in flames. The family are pictured here

The caravan the family stayed in, nicknamed ‘Betsy’, had a smoke and carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen area, as well as a fire blanket and a small fire extinguisher

The caravan the family stayed in – nicknamed ‘Betsy’ – had a smoke and carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen area, as well as a fire blanket and a small fire extinguisher.

On July 23, they socialised with friends around a fire pit in the evening, with some of the adults smoking cigarettes.

The owner of the site did a security check at around 12.30am, an hour after the last person left the fire pit.

The inquest heard there were ‘a few glowing embers’ in the pit at this time, and the weather had been ‘exceptionally dry’ and windy, with hotter than average temperatures for the time of year.

The coroner found that at some time between the inspection and 4.30am, a fire started near one end of the caravan, first catching on the outside before spreading inside, heating the external aluminium cladding of the vehicle and causing the door frame to jam shut.

Mr Pingree was woken by the couple’s children and alerted to the blaze, before forcing open a window as the caravan ‘had quickly become full of acrid dark smoke’.

With Mr Pingree outside and his wife still inside, they helped the children escape before Mrs Pingree was overcome by the flames and smoke.

Mr Stewart had said of the late barrister: ‘Ruth Ann Pingree was described by her family as an amazing person. Someone who had a quality about them that drew you to her with her smile, her laugh, her heart, her vulnerability and her brilliant mind.

The site was made up of seven caravans which had aluminium exteriors. On July 23, the family socialised with friends around a fire pit in the evening

Police at the scene after barrister Ruth Pingree died in the blaze in the vintage Airstream caravan

‘She was a person who would make you feel loved and valued and appreciated. A one in a million. A person who was always there for her family and friends and utterly devoted to her children.’

As well as alleging the smoke alarm was faulty, Mr Pingree has claimed a risk assessment at the glampsite was ‘inadequate’ and there had been no safety assessment relating to the flammability of the awning, artificial grass and interior of the caravan.

In the company’s defence lodged with their court, its barrister Joel Kendall said: ‘The defendant admits that it owed the claimants a duty to take such care as was in all the circumstances of the case reasonable to ensure that they would be reasonably safe in using the premises.’

However, he went on to deny liability for Mrs Pingree’s death, saying: ‘It is denied that the risk assessment was wholly inadequate as alleged or at all. 

‘To the contrary, the assessment was suitable and sufficient when benchmarked against relevant government guidance, and was proportionate to the size and nature of the defendant’s premises.

‘It is admitted as a matter of fact that there was no formal assessment of the flammability of the awning, artificial grass and materials within the trailer. No such assessment was reasonably required, given the size and nature of the defendant’s premises.’

Mr Kendall said there was a central pit positioned ‘at a distance from the individual caravans’ – adding it was surrounded by bricks to prevent fire spread.

He said: ‘The central fire pit was approximately 11.5 metres from the right-hand post of the awning.

‘If the cause of the fire was an ember from the fire pit… the small fire had been set in the location of the central fire pit.

‘While the artificial grass was flammable, just as natural grass is, there was sand beneath the artificial grass area. The upholstery within the trailer was fire retardant.’

Mr Kendall went on to deny that the smoke detector failed to operate and, noting ‘Mr Pingree was at the material time wearing ear plugs’.

He said the smoke detector had been checked as in working order ‘three to four days’ before the arrival of the family.

The detector had been purchased and fitted in April 2021 and was ‘in any event checked on a monthly basis’.

Mr Kendall said: ‘It is not admitted that the detector did not sound during the fire.

‘If, which is not admitted, the fire alarm did not function, it is not admitted that if it had done then this would have been “significantly before” [one of the children] raised the alarm, such that there would have been further time for escape as alleged or at all.

‘There were at least five windows of substantial and suitable size to enable escape should the door not be usable, one of which was in fact used by the claimants.

‘The claimants are in particular put to proof as to the movements and actions of the deceased in light of her intoxicated state. 

‘The defendant notes that the deceased and Mr Pingree had been drinking during the day and evening prior to the incident, and that on post mortem examination the deceased’s blood alcohol level was 200mg/100ml.’

Mr Kendall claimed such ‘significant alcohol levels’ would have ‘significantly impaired the deceased’s judgment, reactions and movements’, meaning ‘significantly increased sound pressure was required to rouse an individual from sleep’.

The glampsite, at Wardspring Farm, Leiston Road, Saxmundham, where Mrs Pingree died, has since permanently closed.

The case will come to court for a pre-trial hearing at a later date unless a prior settlement is reached.