Mum of two killed in blaze after child set fire to teddy bear with cigarette lighter
14 July 2022, 07:17 | Updated: 14 July 2022, 07:23
A young mother-of-two was killed in a house fire after a child set fire to a teddy bear with a cigarette lighter.
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Chloe Doggett was staying at a house in Tonypandy in South Wales when the blaze broke out.
She tried to escape the burning home but passed out from smoke inhalation, a coroner found.
The 28-year-old was pronounced dead at hospital three days after the fire in September last year.
South Wales Police had questioned her boyfriend but dropped the probe after a child in the house admitted starting the fire on September 21 last year.
An inquest on Wednesday heard all adults in the home smoked and lighters were strewn across the house.
No fire alarms were installed and the occupants had no idea a fire had started until passers-by told them smoke was coming out of the top floor windows.
A fire investigation found the blaze started in a children's bedroom.
When it broke out, Ms Doggett was in her boyfriend's top floor bedroom, Facetiming her best friend Phillipa Stevens.
She told the inquest via a statement that Ms Doggett was happy but she then heard what sounded like a woman shouting and a man shouting "Chloe".
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Ms Doggett got off from the bed and looked to move to the door "with intensity" before throwing her phone to the ground.
Ms Doggett's boyfriend said he opened the bedroom door to find smoke, and saw a child in the room opposite which was on fire.
"My natural instinct was to run through the fire and grab the child," he said.
"I didn't realise Chloe was still in the bedroom until I got outside."
A group of men including an off-duty firefighter tried to save Ms Doggett but could not get up the stairs for the smoke, and attempts to break the window from the outside were unsuccessful.
It appeared Ms Doggett had tried to break the window herself to escape, and had cut herself while removing the secondary double-glazing unit, but passed out from smoke inhalation.
Assistant coroner Gaynor Kynaston said: "I accept and find that the fire was started in bedroom two and that the fire was started by a child playing with a cigarette lighter.
"Despite her attempts to escape the scene, Chloe was rendered unconscious by smoke inhalation."
She ruled Ms Doggett's death was an accident.
She told her family: "It is quite obvious from the number of people in court that she was very well loved by you all and will be greatly missed by you and her children.
"This is a tragic, tragic death and one that will stay with me."
