A Filipino farm worker who died attempting to warm himself with a “makeshift fire” previously resorted to sleeping in a greenhouse because it was warmer than his “unfit” accommodation, an inquest has heard.
George Michael Monte De Ramos Castrudes (37) suffered significant hypoxic brain damage resulting from a fire started in work lodgings on the grounds of La Valette Nurseries in Grouville.
An inquest into his death, taking place this week, heard that the seasonal agency worker was found lying unconscious on Sunday 19 January last year in a wooden cabin “engulfed in flames”.
“Insufficient heating to keep the unit warm”
A Jersey Fire and Rescue investigation report found that tenants of the property were liable to the hazard of “extreme cold”, with the temperature plummeting to just 0.3 degrees Celsius on the night of the fire.
On the second day of the hearing, chartered environmental health officer Robert Cragg described Mr Castrudes’ cabin as “unfit for human habitation”.
Based on the report from the fire service, he found there was “insufficient heating to keep the unit warm, with only one small convection heater in the bedroom and wall mounted fan heater in the bathroom”.
Mr Castrudes was trapped in a “vicious cycle” of enduring excess cold but not being able to afford adequate heating, explained Mr Cragg, which led to a “behavioural decision” to “utilise another form of heating”.
Mr Castrudes shared a bedroom in the portable cabin with fellow Filipino farm worker Adrian Aquino, who gave evidence on the second day of the inquest via remote link.
The pair worked together for four seasons until Mr Castrudes’ death on 23 January 2025.
Mr Aquino said he had “got to know George very well” during their time working and living together, beginning in July 2021.
He spoke of his friend sending money to support his “two families” back home in the Philippines, which included three children, a wife and an ex-partner.
The “one freestanding heater” in the cabin was “not really enough for the two of us”, he said.
Mr Aquino said that the workers requested “thicker bedding” from landlord and farm owner Nigel Blake, but “he told us we would need to purchase this ourselves from car-boot sales or shops”.
“He was cold and worried about using the electricity”
He described Mr Castrudes as “quite impulsive”, someone who would “sometimes act on a decision without always thinking it through”.
“On one occasion, I woke up [and] I couldn’t find George,” he told the inquest.
“Later I found out he’d told his wife he was taking his bedding to go and sleep in the greenhouse because it was warmer in there.”
Mr Aquino added that his colleague also spent money on “cans of beer” and cigarettes, and had previously used the washing machine drum as a fire-pit during a New Year’s Eve celebration with friends.
Mr Aquino also said the two men were offered a “bigger heater” by their employer, but Mr Castrudes “refused” because he was “concerned” about electricity costs.
He explained that Mr Blake “sometimes gave us some extra blankets” and would tell the pair to use their heater when it was cold.
But the farm worker repeated that worries about the bills meant they couldn’t heed his advice.
On one occasion, he said, Mr Castrudes resorted to pulling the socket out of their heater at 3am because it was using up too much electricity.
Though he noted: “I am not sure what George was thinking about bringing the drum into the cabin, I can only guess he was cold and worried about using the electricity.”
Mr Aquino still works for the Blake family at Three Oaks farm in St Saviour.
He described his new accommodation as “much better”.
Smoke detector found “not to be operational”
Environmental Health Officer Mr Cragg told the hearing that the smoke detector in the accommodation Mr Aquino and Mr Castrudes shared at La Valette was found “not to be operational”.
He described this as a breach of the “minimum standard of landlords to ensure the alarm system is operational” but said that, due to a “transitional provision” written into the Rented Dwelling Licensing Scheme of April 2024, no “criminal liability” can be attributed to the Blake family as landlords.
“As the licence was issued within the transitional period of legislation, no non-compliance with standard or conditions would result in liability for the landlord under public health and safety legislation,” he explained.
Advocate George Pearce, representing La Valette Nurseries, referred Mr Cragg to earlier evidence provided by Mr Aquino that Mr Castrudes had “tampered” with the battery-operated smoke alarm.
Advocate Pearce suggested that it wouldn’t be “unreasonable” in this case for the landlord to expect tenants to ensure their alarm systems were in working order.
Mr Cragg agreed, but pointed out: “Ideally, any smoke detection best practice and the ideal is a hard-wired system as well, battery should be operating as a failsafe.”
“I warned him not to use the fire-pit”
Nigel Blake, the last person to physically see Mr Castrudes before the fire, told the inquest he had warned his employee not to use the washing drum fire-pit inside.
“I warned him in or around December 2023 not to use the fire-pit next to the accommodation or too close to the glasshouses,” said Mr Blake.
“I was not aware that Mr Castrudes had used the fire-pit inside this accommodation. If I had been aware, I would have forbidden him doing it.”
Mr Blake described his employee as someone who “liked his job” and “never gave me any cause for concern”.
He confirmed that, in the weeks before his death, Mr Castrudes had not said anything about being cold or raised concerns about money.
“He was just being his happy self,” said Mr Blake.
The inquest heard that the cabin that Mr Castrudes and Mr Aquino shared was installed between 1999 and 2000.
Mr Blake said he last checked the fire alarms in mid-2021 when the two men moved in.
Asked if he recalled his employees bringing up the cold temperatures, he said: ‘I suppose they did, yeah.”
Mr Blake clarified that he had given them blankets and some jumpers to help with the cold “just the one time”, but directed them on other occasions to a car-boot sale in Gorey.
His brother Paul Blake said in a statement he was “confident” that Mr Castrudes “would have reported any issue were they to arise”.
He explained that Mr Castrudes was paid every week, but said the last payment before his death was amended to account for a previous overpayment the week prior.
The inquest heard that the Blake family deducted the “statutory maximum” in rent payments from the pay packets of Mr Castrudes and Mr Aquino.
In total, the landlords received in excess of £1,000 per month in rent from the two men.
Heating elements inside the cabin included a 500-watt bathroom heater and a 2000-watt portable heater.
The property had received a “satisfactory” rating in an electrical installation condition report issued on 16 May 2024.
Farm worker left “with very little to live on”
Detective Constable Paul Lovesey, from the Jersey Financial Crime Unit, provided the inquest with a breakdown of Mr Castrudes’ expenditures and salary payments from 2021 to 2025.
It was heard that he received £15,986.14 in wages in 2024, with a total expenditure of £15,814.99.
DC Lovesey said that, in the year leading up to his death, Mr Castrudes sent 73% of his annual salary to the Philippines, leaving him “with very little to live on”.
Advocate Pearce asked: “Is it fair to say that had George not been sending such a significant proportion of his income home, he would have been able to comfortably afford to pay his electricity?’
“Yeah, it was his choice to send that money home,” the Detective Constable replied.
But it was also noted that during the relevant period Mr Castrudes was “only once paid on time” and “most of the time was paid two days after he was due to paid”.
The inquest continues today.
