Warning after Huddersfield man dies sniffing lighter fuel
A CORONER has warned of the dangers of inhaling lighter fuel after hearing how butane gas claimed the life of a Huddersfield man.
An inquest heard how Adam Fitzpatrick, 25, was breathing in the gas in his bedroom together with his schoolgirl girlfriend when he collapsed and died.
His girlfriend, 16-year-old Stevie Clay, survived but deputy coroner Mark Hinchliffe said he hoped Adam’s tragic death would be a lesson to others about the ‘extreme dangers’ associated with butane gas.
He said: "The only good outcome that can come from this is that Stevie and other young people learn a lesson and that other lives are saved.
"A young life has been lost unnecessarily for the cheap thrills that this substance gives."
The Huddersfield inquest heard how Mr Fitzpatrick had started abusing solvents at the age of 15 with friends, but decided to stop.
However he asked his girlfriend if she wanted to try it and the two started inhaling lighter fuel together regularly.
Miss Clay told the inquest how they were soon inhaling every day and that the substance made her boyfriend quiet and prone to hallucinations.
She wept as she told how on December 21 she and her boyfriend had bought two cans of lighter fuel before returning later to Mr Fitzpatrick’s bedroom at his parents’ home in Moorside Avenue, Crosland Moor.
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