Aroen Kishen, Seema’s businessman husband and father of their three children, survived despite falling unconscious while trying to fight the fire with a garden hose.
Lydia Brown, senior coroner for West London, praised Mr Kishen, who occasionally wept through the inquest, for his dignity ‘in the face of losing everything’ in the fire.
The London Fire Brigade said the blaze in Hounslow was one of the most ‘significant’ in the capital since the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017.
West London Coroners’ Court heard on Friday how the group had been celebrating Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, with an evening of food, sparklers and a firework display.
They had been out on the front patio of their home between 9pm and 9.25pm before going to bed.
But at around 9.45pm a neighbour saw smoke emanating from the front of the Kishen household near their recycling bins.
Christopher Rose, a station officer in the London Fire Brigade attached to the fire investigation unit who carried out the initial assessment of the blaze, told the court that because of the nature of Diwali festivities, which sees candles lit and fireworks set off, ‘no one really took too much notice’ of the smoke.
However by around 10.10pm, one of the guests in the property noticed the house was beginning to fill with smoke and alerted Mr Kishen who discovered a sofa in the living room on fire.
Mr Rose added: ‘Mr Kishen opened the front door, saw a fire in the bin and attempted to move the bin and burnt himself in the process.
‘He tried to inform his family and guests to leave the building whilst he tried to tackle the fire with a garden hose, which was unsuccessful.’
The court was told at around 10.20pm a neighbour heard ‘shouting and screaming’ and calls for ‘help’ as the fire lurched from the recycling bin to an ‘essentially plastic’ UPVC living room wall, through to a sofa on the other side before spreading ‘extremely rapidly’ in the home.
Superintendent Joe Geraghty of the Metropolitan Police told the court how Mr Kishen had tried to alert his family of the fire but was overcome by smoke.
He explained: ‘He [Mr Kishen] describes trying to move the sofa and how that caused a plume of smoke and a curtain to catch fire.
‘Mr Kishen describes running into the house and trying to get up the stairs to warn and rescue his family and friends, and falling backwards and losing consciousness.
‘When he regained consciousness he remembers trying to seek help from neighbours.
‘When he returned to the property [he describes] the fire being too fierce for him to enter.
‘The fire took hold very quickly, we can establish that by the CCTV enquiry.’
The first 999 call was made at 10:26pm and the London Fire Brigade were on scene in five minutes.
By 10.30pm, footage captured by a nearby Ring Doorbell showed a ‘really fierce burning’ fire.
The court heard how a handful of firefighters stormed the home but were unable to push past the first floor bedrooms where the victims were believed to have already died.
After leaving and returning with a larger hose, they fought the flames but part of the staircase collapsed under their feet – causing injuries to several firefighters.
They were then forced to erect bridging ladders outside of the property to continue fighting the fire when the first floor caved in.
It took ten fire engines and about 70 firefighters 35 minutes to bring the blaze under control, the court heard, with nearby homes also evacuated.
Giving evidence, Dan Rosling of the LFB, who headed up the investigation into the fire, told the court: ‘With all the evidence that we collected collaboratively, the fire was recorded as accidental, a probable cause had been contributed to ignition of a firework which had landed in a recycling bin containing waste cardboard.
‘The origin of the firework is unknown, it could easily have been a firework which landed having been set off from elsewhere.’
Mr Rosling told the court how firefighters also discovered fireworks at the house which had been stored in cardboard boxes, including handheld sparklers and firework rockets.
He said: ‘We found sparklers. Within that, there was also evidence of other firework paraphernalia, caps from rockets, packaging, to the front of the patio area, there had been a large volume of cardboard firework cartridges.’
At interview, Mr Kishen told police he had discarded remnants of the expended fireworks in the recycling bin at the front of the property noting how sparklers ‘may’ have gone into the recycling as well.
However Mr Rosling stressed that ‘a large number of rocket cartridges and launching aids’ were found around the Hounslow area that night and that CCTV was unable to determine exactly where the firework which triggered the blaze had been fired from.
Mr Kishen told the court how both front and back doors of the property had been left open, a tradition of Diwali intended to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, into their homes.
But this caused a ‘chimney effect’ and allowed smoke to travel up through the house and out of top floor windows in the rooms where the six victims were located, Mr Rosling said.
He said the recycling bin, UPVC fascia and sofa all offered ‘a large fuel package’ for the fire to take hold.
Mr Rosling added how it was ‘untenable’ for anyone inside the property to have survived before offering his sincere condolences to Mr Kishen.
In the following days, investigators found the fire had travelled from the front of the house inside the front door and towards the kitchen. Police established no third party involvement, no criminality and no negligence.
The fire was under control 35 minutes after the first fire crew had arrived.
At this point, five out of the six victims had been found in the upstairs bedrooms, with Mr Chopra found several days later.
The court heard the fire was so aggressive it destroyed ‘100 percent’ of the ground and first floor and 20 percent of the roof – with the amount of debris making it hard to find the victims.
Supt Geraghty said it looked like the victims ‘had fallen asleep where they lay’ and the fire was a ‘tragic accident’ following an evening of celebration. The disaster had ‘affected everyone’ at the Metropolitan Police, he added.
A temporary mortuary was erected at the scene under the orders of Supt Geraghty so the mother and children ‘were never too far apart’.
A guard of honour of emergency services and residents then lined the street as the hearses carrying the family left the scene a few days later.
Dr Ashley Fegan Earl, Home Office pathologist and consultant pathologist who conducted the post-mortems, told West London Coroners’ Court all six victims died of inhalation of fire fumes ‘rather than by flame’.
Ruling out foul play, he said: ‘They inhaled fire fumes, by that I mean gasses released in fire, that would include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, a lack of oxygen and various other gasses.
‘I am quite confident they died of that rather than by flame.’
He said the victims, who were all discovered in the upstairs bedrooms of the property, would have died in ‘no more than a few minutes’ of the fire taking hold.
The Chopras, who were from Afghanistan and had been living at the nearby St Giles Heathrow Hotel on Hounslow Road in Feltham, West London, had no next of kin.
Coroner Ms Brown told the court the children had been pupils at local schools and had been born in Belgium before coming to the UK. Their mother, a sales assistant, had been born in India.
Ruling all six deaths an accident, she said: ‘This family, their two guests, were celebrating the festival of Diwali, ‘a row of lights’, symbolising the victory of light over darkness.
‘Fireworks are a traditional part of those annual celebrations.
‘On the night of November 12, 2023, celebrations for this family and their friends turned into tragedy where six individuals lost their lives in this catastrophic accidental house fire.
‘The family home was utterly destroyed. The recovery of the deceased and the investigation following were carried out jointly by the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade to the highest of standards and I am grateful for all the professionalism shown.
‘I’ve seen the photographs in happier days of their smiling, gorgeous children, you cannot help but be deeply affected by their loss in such abrupt, awful circumstances.
‘Mr Kishen, throughout this process, in the face of losing everything, you have been dignified, accepting of this long, difficult legal process.
You have also taken onboard the representation of Mr and Mrs Chopra of whom we had no next of kin.
‘I am sure I am joined by everyone here in expressing our deepest sorrow for your losses and our condolences to you.’
In a statement, The London Fire Brigade offered their sincere condolences to Mr Kishen but warned of the dangers posed by fireworks.
North West Area Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Paul Askew, said: ‘On behalf of London Fire Brigade, I’d like to express my condolences to Mr Kishen and all of those affected by this terrible tragedy.
‘On what was supposed to be a night of celebration to mark the beginning of Diwali, a tragic accident occurred.
‘In the days and weeks after this fire, the Brigade worked closely with its partners to provide support where possible, including meeting with local residents, attending faith meetings and joining a guard of honour for the recovery of the family and their guests from the property.
‘I’d like to thank in particular the bravery of the initial crews on scene, who were faced with a devastating house fire, as well as our Fire Investigation colleagues who carried out a detailed and thorough investigation into the fire, to help provide much-needed answers as to why this fire occurred.
‘This incident sadly highlights the dangers that we know exist with fireworks.
‘We will be working closely with our partners and communities across London to ensure they are aware of the risks fireworks pose, including during religious festivals and other cultural celebrations.
‘We would also like to highlight the importance of working smoke alarms, which give the earliest possible warning when a fire starts.