Death of man swept away during Storm Babet ruled accidental

An inquest into the death of a man, who was swept away in flood water in Shropshire during Storm Babet, has ruled he died as a result of accidental drowning.

Emergency services were called to reports of a man in the water on Friday, October 20.

Trevor David Furniss, 66, was confirmed dead after a 90-minute search. His body was found in Mad Brook, at Meaton Lane.

Mr Furniss was a company director and lived at Furnace Mill, just outside Kidderminster.

His death came as Storm Babet swept across the UK, battering the country with heavy rain.

The inquest heard how Mr Furniss and his family were trying to escape their property, as flood water surged from a nearby brook.

Fearing the flooding was becoming dangerous, Mr Furniss had tried to leave his home with his wife Deborah, their son Oliver and their dog on October 20 2023 in two separate cars, but they could not get off the rural property because of rising water from three nearby brooks.

Telling his wife to stay with their Mercedes, Mr Furniss, with their German shepherd dog, got into their Land Rover and managed to make it through the floodwater on their driveway, parking the 4x4 in a nearby road which was dry.

Returning to their home via a neighbour's property with the dog still in the car, Mr Furniss carried his wife and son back inside their home before leaving again, not telling his wife where he was going or why, Shropshire assistant coroner Heath Westerman said at an inquest into his death on Wednesday.

Neighbour Ed Brown, who owns Furnace Mill Fishery next door, said Mr Furniss appeared on his property having parked his vehicle at the bottom of his driveway and looked "shaken and frightened".

Mr Brown told the inquest into his neighbour's death that Mr Furniss was "determined" to get across the flooded Baveney Brook so he could return to his vehicle which had his dog inside.

He said: "I told him it was impossible. He said 'I'm going to cross' - I told him he couldn't, it was too dangerous. He wasn't listening to me, so I explained he should cross through the woodland on the other side of the brook.

"He set off across the brook holding a rope I had put in before, I was talking him through all the dangers. There was a large tree coming in the water, he managed to avoid it.

"He eventually got across and I told him to go to the road to find his car. That was the last time I saw him."

Twenty minutes later, Mr Brown received a call from Katie Arnold, a livery manager at a nearby farm who asked for his help as she had seen a man in deep water.

Mr Brown said: "I was struggling to get there. She said he had gone under the water."

In a statement, Ms Arnold said she was with a colleague surveying a damaged fence at Silligrove Farm that had been washed over the road by the floods when she saw a man in the water.

With the colleague calling 999, she said: "He was walking upstream, the water was up to his waist. I couldn't communicate with him, the noise from the water was too much.

"He was struggling and by now the water was up to his chest. I saw him go under the water for a second or two.

"Now he was up to his neck, his coat got stuck on a branch. He was holding onto a branch, he was asking us to get help.

"When I turned my back he went under and he didn't come back up."

Firefighter Alex Chester-Masters, of Shropshire Fire and Rescue, told the inquest the 999 call was made at 10.40am alerting them to a male in need of help, but it took his crew more than an hour to get from their base in Shrewsbury to Cleobury Mortimer.

He said: "It took a long time to get there due to diversions because of the flood water. Our journey was hampered massively and we also had to help people stuck in the flood waters on the way so we could clear the road and get through."

Mr Chester-Masters said when he arrived, other rescue teams were already at the scene and were working downstream of where Mr Furniss was last seen, so he decided to start searching the area close to where he had gone missing.

He discovered Mr Furniss's body under the water close to a group of trees and he was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics at 12.41pm.

Mr Brown said he believed the flooding was bad because of an accumulation of floodwater from three separate brooks that all converged together and that Mr Furniss had become lost while navigating the floods and ended up in a treacherous situation.

He said: "There was nothing anybody really could have done to alleviate a flooding of that magnitude."

Mrs Furniss, who was supported at the inquest by her daughter and family friends, paid an emotional tribute to her Sheffield-born husband, who studied at Stanford University in the US to become a surgeon and was a keen shooter.

She said: "He was a fantastic husband and dad. He was very caring and always put family first. He would do anything for anyone.

"He was a family man who loved nothing more than spending time with us."

Describing what happened on the day of the floods, she said her husband became concerned that their home was going to flood as the water was rising quickly, so they made a plan to leave home and head to his mother's empty property in Droitwich.

The widow said: "Water was coming up the driveway, the whole property was surrounded. The water was roaring, it was just everywhere.

"There was debris, trees, branches, fences. We were surrounded by water. It was horrendous."

The force of the water was so strong it has caused damage to their home that will take two years to fix, she told the inquest.

Mr Westerman ruled that Mr Furniss had died as a result of an accident.

He said: "Mrs Furniss has indicated how scary it was to be caught up in Storm Babet. She was scared for her property and scared for her family.

"Mr Furniss was determined he wanted to cross Baveney Brook to get his car or to get his dog.

"Ed Brown warned him of the dangers and told him not to attempt it but he was determined, so he helped him by getting him to a rope bridge he had built previously.

"Mr Brown said he believed that Mr Furniss became disorientated after crossing Baveney Brook and must have entered the water downstream and got into fatal difficulty.

"He chose to walk back to the vehicle to stay with the dog or to drive somewhere else. He knew the risks and he decided to take these risks.

"The sheer force of Storm Babet had a huge impact on the whole country, but particularly our area.

"His death was not preventable."

After almost two hours of searching, his body was recovered by emergency services.

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