Search for
Search for
Search forSmoking in bed caused fire fatality
Saturday, November 01, 2008, 09:00
As reported, Lawrence Connor (80), of Crowland Avenue, Grimsby, was found dead at his home following a fire on Good Friday in March.
An inquest at Cleethorpes Town Hall heard that Mr Connor – who was bed-ridden after suffering a series of strokes – died of smoke inhalation after dropping a cigarette onto his bed.
Although the cigarette did not cause flames to ignite, a post mortem examination found the skin on his lower limbs and abdomen was blackened, with burns on his left hand caused by the slow burning of his mattress.
It is believed Mr Connor, who lived and slept in a specially-built extension at the rear of the house, dropped the cigarette during the night while his wife and carer Beatrice was upstairs in bed.
At the inquest, she said that she went downstairs on the morning of his death and noticed the house was hazy.
She said: "His room was behind the kitchen and had fire doors on it.
"The kitchen was really hazy but I couldn't smell anything because of my asthma.
"When I touched the door handle it was hot and when I opened the door it was just black with smoke."
She added that after the strokes left him paralysed down the left-hand side of his body, smoking and reading were the only things he enjoyed.
She said: "I used to try to get him to stop smoking and the doctors told him to as well.
"One of his carers used to roll the cigarettes for him and I'd leave a few in a tin next to the bed for him."
Paul Gabbitas, a fire investigation officer for Yorkshire and Humberside, said Mr Connor appeared to have been asleep when the fire began and that the cigarette had caused his mattress to smoulder, spreading slowly.
Coroner Paul Kelly highlighted the fact that if a fire alarm had been fitted in the extension where Mr Connor lived, it may have improved the chances of the fire being detected sooner.
He recorded the cause of Mr Connor's death as accidental.
Speaking after the inquest, the investigating officer Mr Gabbitas warned against smoking in bed.
Mr Connor who died from smoke inhalation. Inset, flashback to the tribute to Mr Connor by his wife Beatrice in the Telegraph at the time.
Grim find
