Blaze victim boy fights for life

A schoolboy was today fighting for his life after flames engulfed the bedroom of a flat in Stourbridge just days after his mother's funeral.

The victim, named locally as Matthew Barker, aged 12, is believed to have suffered 40 per cent burns to his upper body, face and arms in the blaze.

Fire experts are investigating reports the boy and a friend were playing with lighter fluid. He is being treated at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol where a spokeswoman refused to comment on his condition.

Neighbours said Matthew had been visiting his friend Corey Spruce at his home in Norfolk Road, Wollaston, when the fire broke out.

Reports an accelerant may have been used have not been commented on by West Midlands Police.

A resident who lives a few doors away from the Barker family home at The Green, said Matthew had gone through the trauma of his mother Jane's funeral last Wednesday.

The woman, who did not want to be named, saw the blaze on Saturday night and said: "It's terrible, we don't know how it happened.

"We saw the engines and police cars and the ambulance.

"We heard Matthew was taken to a hospital in Bristol because there were no beds at Selly Oak. He's a lovely lad."

The youngster, who neighbours say is a pupil at Ridgewood High School, was initially taken to Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital but was later transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit at the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

At the house today there were the remains of charred clothing. An off-duty firefighter who lives just two doors down from the Barker family said the 12-year-old had managed to put the fire out by rolling on the pavement.

Matthew's relatives have been told him he underwent an emergency skin graft.