Mother dies mopping leak

A young mother has died after being electrocuted while mopping up a leak at her Black Country home.

Asda worker Emma Shaw, aged 22, phoned boyfriend Andy Cross in a panic to say sparks were flying from the boiler.

Mr Cross, a contractor with National Grid, rushed home from work to find her collapsed unconscious on the kitchen floor and their one-year-old son Brayden in the living room unharmed.

The 25-year-old dialled 999 and paramedics rushed to the house in Jefferson Place, Grafton Road, West Bromwich. Miss Shaw was taken to Sandwell General Hospital where she was pronounced dead. A police investigation was today under way.

Mr Cross's devastated father Tim Cross said: "Emma was mopping up a leak from the boiler. She phoned my son and said she could see sparks and asked him to come back home from work. He tried to ring her back three times. He got back about 40 minutes later to find her on the floor in the kitchen and she had gone."

Mr Cross, of Bewdley, said the couple had been together several years. Miss Shaw was a pupil at Willingsworth High School in Tipton after which she joined Asda in Great Bridge aged 16 where she worked in the restaurant. Colleagues have held a collection for her family.

Caroline Hill, the girlfriend of Mr Cross's brother Ashley, said Miss Shaw was like her sister-in-law. She said: "She was lovely and devoted to her little boy."

National Grid, where Mr Cross works as a contractor in Black Lake and Stourbridge, has raised money for him following the tragedy, which happened on December 14. Floral tributes and cuddly toys have been laid outside the couple's home.

Signs requesting residents to call and arrange a boiler test have also been put up at the entrance to the flats.