Deceased
Timothy Joseph De Voigt
Demographics
12y, male
Date of death
2009-12-26
Finding date
2015-11-23
Cause of death
Effects of fire
AI-generated summary
Timothy Joseph De Voigt, aged 12, died in a house fire on 26 December 2009 at his family home in Cranbourne, Victoria. The fire originated in a multi-outlet power board in his bedroom, likely caused by an electrical fault within the power board or a connected appliance. Timothy was overcome by smoke inhalation and fire effects while sleeping. The coroner's investigation revealed widespread misuse of power boards including overloading, cocooning (covering with items), piggy-backing, and contamination. Key clinical lessons include: the vulnerability of young children to fire injury; the cumulative electrical degradation that occurs in aged power boards due to wear and tear; and the gap between safety standards (which test only new devices) and real-world use. The coroner recommended public awareness campaigns about power board safety and testing of used/old power boards to better understand aging-related risks, as current Australian/New Zealand Standards focus only on temporary use of new devices.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Clinical conditions
3y · Male·Smoke inhalation with thermal inhalation injury and carbon monoxide poisoning
Mitchell Thomas, aged three, died in a public housing fire at Larapinta on 1 June 2023, from smoke inhalation. The fire was caused by electrical arcing in the roof space resulting from degraded insulation between two adj…
Unknown·Mixed drug toxicity
Clem McCullough died between 8-10 June 2019 from mixed drug toxicity. The inquest, held in May 2026, resulted in an open finding as the available evidence did not permit the coroner to determine the place or manner of de…
3y · Male·Hyperthermia due to environmental heat exposure due to vehicular entrapment
A 3-year-old died from hyperthermia after being left in a parked vehicle for over 5 hours on a hot day (31°C maximum). The father experienced a prospective memory failure: after refuelling during the school run, his auto…
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —