Cigarette may have been to blame for fatal fire

6:07pm Wednesday 23rd April 2008

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A FIRE which killed a woman in her first floor flat may have been started by a lit cigarette.

Yesterday, police named the victim of the fire in Darlington on Tuesday evening as 49-year-old Pauline Nixon.

Firefighters rescued Ms Nixon from her first-floor flat on Tuesday evening after neighbours spotted smoke billowing out from the building in Malvern Crescent in the Branksome area of town shortly after 5pm.

She was found unconscious on the front room floor in the heavily smoke-logged flat and was carried outside the building.

Emergency services spent several minutes trying to resuscitate her before she was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital.

However, the attempts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead at around 6pm.

Last night, a Durham police spokesman said: "Investigators have confirmed the fire is not being treated as suspicious and are concentrating their attention on a mattress in the rear bedroom, where it's thought a cigarette may be responsible for triggering the fire.

"Police will be preparing a file for consideration by the coroner."

Ms Nixon, who had one daughter, lived alone, except for two parakeets and a miniature Yorkshire Terrier.

The birds were found dead in the flat.

Initially, it was feared that Ms Nixon's dog may have been lost as it was not found at the scene of the fire, but firefighters said it was now safe.

Dave Turnbull, Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescues Community Safety Manager, said: "The dog has been located and is being looked after by relatives."

He added that investigations were ongoing and they had not ruled out other causes for the fire.

Although Ms Nixon had fire alarms fitted they were still looking at whether they worked or not.

He said: "We're looking at every single aspect of this particular fire.

"At the end of the day we want to prevent any reoccurrence if its preventable.

"Although were erring on the side of an accidental fire we still need to verify every everything.

"The fire alarms are very sensitive and we still need to clarify whether they operated."