POLICE are investigating a fire in which a 45-year-old mother died at the weekend.

Grace Chambers was trapped on the first floor of her house, in Aycliffe Avenue, Springwell Estate, Gateshead, when the fire broke out on Saturday.

Her partner, Thomas Allan, 55, managed to drag himself to safety through their front room window.

Neighbour Tommy Miller, 43, scaled the side of the house in a bid to save her, but was beaten back by thick smoke.

The couple's 13-year-old son, Joseph, a pupil at nearby St Edmund Campion RC School, was not in the house at the time.

Detective Sergeant Steve Carter, of Gateshead CID, said an inquiry had been launched into the cause of the blaze.