A discarded lit cigarette resulted in the death of a Kings Langley woman and her dog, an inquest heard on Thursday.

Janet Waite, 77, was discovered dead by firefighters, police and paramedics in her Primrose Hill home on June 11 at 6.20am.

Fire had broken out in the front room on the ground floor of the semi-detached property, the sole room Mrs Waite occupied.

The widow, who was registered blind, had numerous health ailments including a heart murmur and chronic obstructive airways disease. She had also had a hip replacement limiting her mobility.

She relied upon three carers who visited her three times a day.

Patricia Brandom, who works for Saga as a part-time carer, saw Mrs Waite the evening before she died.

Giving evidence at the inquest on Thursday, October 9, she said:  "She was a character, she was grumpy, she said it as it was. She knew what she wanted to do and what she didn’t. There was no friendship.

"I’d make sure the dog was let out when I came in, I’d talk to her, see what she wanted, make a meal for her – a ham sandwich or pork pie, saw if she took her medication and cleaned her commode.

"Sometimes she took her medication, sometimes she wouldn’t. I found the way to get around her was to say something nice about the dog. If you mentioned her smoking, it put her back up.

"She had an ashtray but she used to put her butts in a metal bin. I would put water in it to safeguard myself. I don’t know if water was put in the bin that evening."

According to coroner Edward Thomas, Mrs Waite had only two visits from her carers the day before she died – in the morning and the evening.

He also revealed there had been a small fire at the property some months before, as a result of the bin catching light from a cigarette thought to have been stubbed out.

David Stokes, fire investigation officer, told the court what he had discovered.

He said: "Fire crews located Janet by her armchair lying on the floor towards the door. She was carried out of the property to the ambulance service, who confirmed she had died. She was taken to Watford General Hospital, where they too confirmed she had died.

"There was evidence that she was a heavy smoker, we found her ashtray, packets of cigarettes, two cooking gas lighters and the bin she used for her cigarettes. The fire had started in and around the chair where she used to sit.

"We found a box of tissues and the waste paper bin. It’s difficult to pin point exactly if it started in the bin or by the tissues, but the bin is the big suspect.

"It appears a lit cigarette was discarded, Mrs Waite probably thought it was out. This either fell into the bin where there may have been tissues or on the box of tissues. This then smouldered.

"Then her armchair and its large foam cushion seat, which was made of polyurethane foam, caught light, and this would have given off a toxic smoke – cyanide, which would account for the high level found in her bloodstream in the post-mortem, compared to carbon monoxide.

"If she did get up from her chair, the fumes would have been so thick she wouldn’t have got very far.  It would have been very quick. We think the dog was asleep and poisoned by the smoke.

"The windows were closed as well, so no ventilation and the fire would've had nothing to feed on, which is why it was limited to that one room.

"We believe the smoke detector was working, we were told it operated last time when the bin caught fire. People don’t necessarily take on board the sound of a smoke alarm, so they might not have reacted if it had gone off.

"You could say the fire before was a near miss, a lucky escape. Unfortunately it’s not the case this time."

Mr Thomas said Mrs Waite’s death was a tragedy, and gave a recording of accidental death, with a cause of third degree burns and smoke inhalation.

Steven Borrall, from Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said that since Mrs Waite’s death there has been a multi-agency review, encouraging social services and carers to share concerns over residents’ safety with the fire service.

He hoped this would result, he said, in more residents taking advantage of free fire safety checks and smoke alarms offered by the fire service.

To find out about fire safety visit www.hertsdirect.org/fire.