A PENSIONER who died in a house fire could have been rescued in minutes had firefighters not been faced with rooms packed almost to the ceiling with her belongings.

Instead it took almost half an hour to rescue Ann Bradshaw because her house was so full of clutter that they struggled to find space to help them carry out the rescue, an inquest heard.

County Durham and Darlington Coroner Andrew Tweddle is calling for more to be done to highlight the dangers and consequences of hoarding and criticised TV programmes for making light of the issue.

“The conditions were quite extreme on a number of levels,” he said. “The physical state of the property with the amount of stuff is quite staggering and made the job of the firefighters quite difficult and dangerous.

“It would have been so easy to have two dead firefighters on the day.

"Therefore there should be significant praise for the firefighters for their determination in the face of extreme and dangerous circumstances to try and rescue Ann Bradshaw.”

When fire crews arrived at Mrs Bradshaw's home in Honister Place, Newton Aycliffe, on May 14 last year neighbours warned them they would struggle to get inside because of her hoarding.

It was so bad that her 37-year-old son Ian, who lived with her, would spend two hours moving items each time he wanted to leave.

Having rescued Mr Bradshaw from an upstairs bathroom window, firefighters were unable to reach his mother, despite repeated attempts.

When they finally got through the front door, they reported there was little space to carry out a search and the staircase was like a tunnel due to all the belongings.

The blaze was caused by an electrical fault after an extension cable running under the clutter was rubbed down to the bare wire by people walking past the items.

It was one of the hottest blazes fire crews reported having ever faced.

Firefighter Glen Crookes (CORR) said getting up the stairs to reach Mrs Bradshaw was like “swimming in shale”. He had to use his hands to provide his colleague Graeme Norman with a platform to reach the first floor.

Crew manager Andrew Ellison said: “We smashed a back window and the stuff in the house was about a foot from the top of the room. It was too dangerous. It was impossible to get in.

“I had hold of her arm when I was up the ladder but I couldn’t reach her enough to pull her out. I did fear for my own safety. The smoke was so thick and black.”

Mrs Bradshaw died at the scene from smoke inhalation.

She had been in discussions with social housing provider livin, which managed the house, weeks before the incident over her hoarding problem.

Mr Tweddle plans to write to social housing providers about hoarding in the hope it will reduce the risk to both individuals and the emergency services.

“Hoarding has even reached the TV and it is almost made light of and obviously makes good TV,” he said. “However, this shows that people are at grave risk to themselves, potentially their neighbours, but equally to those who try to save lives.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Tweddle also called into question the radios used by firefighters after a malfunction believed to have been caused when climbing the stairs left them unable to confirm any change of plan with the rescue.

He said although it did not contribute to Mrs Bradshaw’s death, he would be writing to the fire brigade to see if new measures could be put in place.

Alan Boddy, livin’s executive director for people and communities, said: “As the tenant was clearly overwhelmed by the amount of items that had accumulated in her home, livin’s community co-ordinator was working closely with the family and making good progress in supporting them to clear the vast amount of items being hoarded.

“We have also run articles in our tenants magazine and on our website to highlight the dangers of hoarding.”