Lit cigarette sparks a pensioner's wheelchair cushion and clothes - 1 dead

Catherine Blud, 83, was a pensioner who burned to death at her home at Tong End (Whitworth, Rochdale, United Kingdom) on April 8 2011. The inquest heard the cigarette seems to have ignited the cushion which set fire to Mrs Blud’s clothing. A post-mortem into Mrs Blud’s death found that she had died as a result of severe burns rather than smoke inhalation. The inquest investigated the chair she was sitting in because it was an electric chair and all the wiring but that was all fine. The fire seems to have started on a cushion on the chair and would then have ignited her clothes.