AN epileptic kitchen porter told friends “I wish I was dead” hours before being killed in a devastating hotel blaze, an inquest has heard.

James Butterfield, 41, died in his room in the staff quarters of the 170-bedroom Majestic Hotel, in Harrogate, on May 5, after a fire swept across the top floor and roof of the landmark Edwardian building.

Opening a week-long hearing into the death, North Yorkshire Coroner Rob Turnbull said a heat detector alarm in Mr Butterfield’s room had been triggered at 4.50am and firefighters were called.

The hotel’s 132 guests and 25 of its resident staff were evacuated, but colleagues and firefighters attempting to reach Mr Butterfield, who was known as Nigel, were beaten back by the flames.

When his badly burnt body was later found, it appeared he had been overcome by smoke while trying to reach the bedroom window.

A post-mortem examination concluded Mr Butterfield died of smoke inhalation and a fire investigation found no evidence the blaze had been deliberately started.

Mr Turnbull said: “An accidentally dropped cigarette may have come into contact with bedding.”

The hotel’s general manager, Vincent Johnson, told the jury at Conyngham Hall, in Knaresborough, how some of the resident staff ignored the hotel’s smoking ban and that Mr Butterfield was a heavy smoker.

In a statement, Mr Butterfield’s foster mother, Loreen Haworth, said that while he had tough times as a child in a Harrogate care home, with classmates nicknaming him “Zippy” due to his spina bifida scar, he had been employed at the hotel for 19 years and loved the work.

The hotel’s kitchen superviser, Ian Young, told the hearing his friend of 25 years had been suffering from an increasing number of epileptic fits in the weeks before the fire.

On the day before the fire, hotel managers took Mr Butterfield to his room to recover after appearing depressed and unwell in the staff canteen.

Mr Young said: “He was slurring and staggering, bouncing off the walls. If I didn’t know him better, I’d have thought he was drunk, but he didn’t drink because of his epilepsy medication.

“He was saying how no one had ever taught him how to take care of himself and that he would be better off dead.”

The hearing continues.