A retired teacher died in a house fire when a heater set fire to hoarded waste in her living room.

Mary Greener died of smoke inhalation after the blaze at her home on Shafto Way in Newton Aycliffe, an inquest into her death on Monday (July 15) heard.

The blaze happened in the early hours of December 22, 2022, when a halogen heater 84-year-old Mary was using set fire to rubbish nearby and filled her home with smoke.

The inquest concluded she died of a combination of “self-neglect and misuse of medication”.

Fire officer Malcolm Woodward who investigated the blaze told Crook Corners' Court: “The property itself was very cluttered with hoarding material including general household waste.

“In some areas it was up to a meter high this hoarding.

Mary Greener's home on Shafto Way where she tragically died in a house fire.Mary Greener's home on Shafto Way where she tragically died in a house fire. (Image: The Northern Echo)

“The fire spread from the area of a halogen heater – that was the main seat of the fire.

“The halogen heater has impacted on maybe the chair if it has been too close or maybe bags of rubbish. The fire has grown due to the fuel that is in there – the hoarding materials.”

He added that the blaze itself was contained and flames died down as they didn’t have enough oxygen to rage on, but the fire continued smouldering creating smoke that filled the house.

The court heard how Mary’s next-door neighbour rang firefighters at 3.05am after being woken by her fire alarm and finding smoke coming from her loft. The neighbour tried to “determine where it was coming from and noticed [Mary’s house] was full of smoke”.

Police and fire crews arrived five minutes later and found Mary and attempted CPR but she was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived.

A post-mortem examination by Dr Barrett listed her medical cause of death as carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation. Meanwhile, a toxicology report said the level of painkiller tramadol in her system would be “sufficient to have affected the deceased’s ability to escape the fire”.

Probed by Senior Assistant Coroner Crispin Oliver as to whether he thought Mary would have been able to escape, Mr Woodward said that due to the hoarding, her mobility issues and high levels of painkillers she “would have struggled to escape from the property”.

An inquest was held at Crook Coroners' Court on Monday (July 15).An inquest was held at Crook Coroners' Court on Monday (July 15).

The court heard Mary had started to “self-isolate” about three years before the Covid pandemic and had become “somewhat withdrawn”.

Keith Wandee who authored a safeguarding report said Mary didn’t allow family into her house, had shopping delivered and wouldn’t allow social services to enter either despite them having had several referrals from people concerned for her.

He told Crook Coroners’ Court: “She acknowledged that she had a lot of material in the house.

“There are several occasions where she says ‘I’m going to have a clear out or get the family around to help’ […] but then she doesn’t seem to act on that.”

Summarising the evidence Crispin Oliver said: “Mary Greener suffered from fatal smoke inhalation during a house fire caused by a halogen heater igniting hoarded materials. The extent of the hoarded materials plus the toxicity levels of tramadol in her system contributed to her death.

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“We have got a situation where somebody has enough capacity to say ‘I know what I’m doing’ but probably not enough capacity or not the executive type of capacity to do something about it.

“Social services and other agencies have repeatedly offered [help] to her and she hasn’t let people in the house.”

He concluded: “Mary Greened died an accidental death in the context of self-neglect and the misuse of medication.”