A fire officer who investigated a blaze which killed two young brothers said he could find no evidence of smoke alarms fitted in the property.

Gary Asquith, a fire investigator with West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, told a jury at Leeds Crown Court that he examined the rear bedroom in which Logan Taylor, three, and Jake Casey, two, had been fatally injured.

He said he was confident that the fire at the Fartown property had been started by an electrical fault in a television in the boys’ room.

Mr Asquith said the fire service had previously carried out fire safety checks at 33 properties on Alder Street but the records showed that No 256, the three-bed semi where the boys died, hadn’t been visited.

He told the court that there were no signs of smoke detectors fitted to ceilings or any remains that had fallen to the floor, although a ‘base plate’ had been found in the hallway which was similar to those used to fix smoke detectors to ceilings.

The fire officer was giving evidence at the trial of 51-year-old Kamal Bains, a property management company director who denies gross negligence manslaughter.

The prosecution say that the boys’ mother, Emma Taylor, repeatedly asked Bains to fit smoke detectors at the property – “but he never did.”

Prosecutor Allan Compton told the jury at the opening of the case that Bains was the “heart and soul” of the now defunct property management company Prime Property Estates (Yorkshire).

Kamal Bains at Kirklees Magistrates Court, Huddersfield.

Bains, say the prosecution, was responsible for failing to ensure 256 Alder Street was equipped with working smoke alarms.

Friday’s court hearing heard from firefighter Sarah Dykes who had been called to the house after the fire to strip wallpaper from the ceiling to allow police to take photos.

Miss Dykes said: “Once stripped, I could not see any holes where a smoke detector could have been fixed with screws.”

Her firefighter colleague Ross McCall said: “I did not see any holes in the ceiling where anything could have been fastened to it. There was no smoke alarm fitted.”

The jury heard from Kirklees Council employee Rachel Hemingway, a community care officer with the Accessible Homes Team who in 2015 had been looking at ways of helping Ms Taylor care for Logan, who was thought to be autistic.

During a visit to the house Ms Hemingway said she hadn’t looked for smoke alarms and hadn’t noticed whether they were present or not.

Flowers left at scene of fatal house fire, Alder Street, Fartown, Huddersfield.

The court heard that following the fire Kirklees Council had changed its policies so that such home visits now included checking homes for smoke detectors.

The jury was told that on the day of the fire, February 20 2016, neighbours and a passerby had made desperate attempts to rescue the boys.

Alder Street resident Marcin Wojciechowski ran outside after seeing smoke coming through windows of the house opposite.

He was told two children were still inside.

“I ran into the house to get the children. I got half way upstairs and had to retreat due to smoke and flames.”

He then went round the back of the house but couldn’t reach the children. A man passing in a car also tried in vain to reach the children.

The jury was told that post mortem examinations established the boys had died from smoke inhalation. Both had suffered burns.

Bains, of Stableford Gardens, Birkby, denies two counts of manslaughter and one offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.