The death of a ten-month-old girl who was scalded in her cot could have been avoided had warnings about faulty immersion heaters been passed on, an inquest jury said yesterday.

Rhianna Hardie, of Taunton, died of burns three weeks after a hot water thermostat in her family’s new council home failed. Boiling water melted a plastic water tank in the attic and poured through the ceiling on to Rhianna, who was asleep in the bedroom beneath.

The jury at the inquest in Taunton said in a narrative verdict that councils should have been alerted to a previous incident, which resulted in the death of a 30-year-old woman from Cornwall four years earlier. “The accident would not have occurred if the full implications of a similar incident at Penwith, Penzance, in 2002, had been drawn to the attention of the landlords by the relevant authority, and steps taken to ensure the cold water system and the thermostat complied with the current British standards.”

Michael Rose, the West Somerset Coroner, described Rhianna’s death as one of the most tragic he had dealt with in more than 40 years. He urged anyone with an immersion heater to check for the potentially fatal fault that allows the water to carry on heating to boiling point if the thermostat fails. “Virtually every householder in the UK should look at their thermostat and, if it doesn’t comply with current British standards, replace it as a matter of urgency,” he said. “It is incredible that a design that was in common use for four decades was allowed to continue. Three-and-a-half million or so were installed in local authority homes, housing association premises, private homes and flats. The real cause of this disaster was a thermostat that failed.”

The inquest was told that a warning from the Health and Safety Executive after the 2002 incident was not passed on by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, then responsible for local government. Until Rhianna’s death it was the only recorded fatality caused by a faulty immersion heater.

Rhianna’s parents, Matthew Hardie and Charlene Haworth, said after the hearing that their daughter’s death was a totally foreseeable tragedy. In a statement, the couple, who have since had another child, said: “Rhianna was our beautiful little girl. She was only ten months old when she was taken away from us. Never a day goes by when we do not think of her. We will never forget her.

“The inquest has shown how the council relied upon its tenants to tell them when thermostats failed, without saying what we should look for or what to do. The expert evidence was that this was a totally foreseeable tragedy, an accident waiting to happen.

“How electric thermostats in domestic hot water systems with a life span of five to ten years can be installed on a ‘fit and forget’ basis is an outrage.”

Current standards require that immersion heaters have a failsafe switch that turns the device off if the thermostat fails. However, there is no requirement for older models to be replaced.

Taunton Deane Borough Council said that 95 per cent of Taunton’s 4,680 council houses with the older type of heater had had the unit replaced since Rhianna’s death. A spokesman said: “The tragic circumstances of Rhianna’s death do not reflect a want of care by Taunton Deane Borough Council. However, there are lessons to be learnt for all local authorities, housing associations and private sector landlords.”

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