No blame over hot pool death

Coroner Wallace Bain

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Rotorua City Council can take no blame for the death of a 10-year-old Hamilton boy who died of severe burns after falling into a boiling mud pool two years ago, Coroner Wallace Bain says.

Toromon Falaile Toromon, of Hamilton, slipped off a low rock wall around a mud pool in Kuirau Park, Rotorua, on Boxing Day 2010.

He died in Middlemore Hospital four days later after sustaining full-thickness burns to 95 per cent of his body.

The family were on a day-trip to Rotorua and were photographed sitting on the rock barrier around the pool shortly before the accident.

After lunch Toromon went off with his 11-year-old brother.

Three to five minutes later the brother came back to say Toromon had fallen into the mud. Water in the pool was 74.8 degrees Celsius.

The pool was unfenced but had a rock barrier to prevent people stumbling into it. Police reported there were no consistent standard of fencing or signage in Rotorua geothermal areas to ensure the public were kept safe.

Bain said there were many boiling mud pools and thermal pools around Rotorua and it was impossible to keep the public out of them if people were "hell bent" on getting very close and running the risk of slipping in.

- © Fairfax NZ News