Mum-of-three, 29, dies after dropping lit cigarette next to Christmas tree and setting fire to house
A YOUNG MUM died after dropping a lit cigarette by a Christmas tree which set fire to her house, an inquest heard.
Danielle Saunders, 29, dozed off after returning from a night out and her cigarette sparked a huge blaze at her home in Saltash, Cornwall.
The coroner heard the mum of three had been out drinking the night before with friends and fell asleep on her sofa on December 30 last year.
Cops were called when a concerned friend noticed Danielle had been inactive on Facebook Messenger for longer than usual.
Detective Constable Heather Gibbs said: "They could smell smoke, they went inside and they found Danielle behind the sofa.
"The seat of the fire started just in front of the Christmas tree where there were some boxes of toys and bits and pieces.
"The room was very blackened. There had obviously been a lot of soot or smoke in the room.
"It would have been a slow-burning, smouldering type fire rather than flames, caused by some material such as a cigarette.
"She had a blanket with her, sort of a fleece, so it looked like possibly she had perhaps woken up and realised that the room was full of smoke.
"She probably got down on the ground, which is what TV adverts tell you to do, done the right thing to get out and then perhaps become disorientated."
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Fire chief Mark Goldsmith said she must have fallen asleep while smoking and dropped the cigarette “onto the toys and cardboard and materials on the floor between the sofa and the Christmas tree”.
Her children were not at home when the fire happened and a pathologist confirmed she died from fume inhalation.
At her inquest at County Hall in Truro, Assistant Cornwall coroner Barrie van den Berg concluded a fire started which led to the fatal inhalation of fumes.
