AN 87-year-old retired labourer lay on the floor for two hours with his clothes smouldering after trying to light a coal fire at his home, an inquest has been told.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded on Matthew Fenwick Smith, of Birch Grove, Sleights, Whitby, who died the following day in hospital from burns.

His son, Kevin, said he had found his father lying on the kitchen floor with burns to his arms, back, chest and face, and he told him he had been there for two hours.

Firefighter Gordon Shipley said there was no evidence that a fire had occurred at the house, which had made the cause of the incident difficult to ascertain.

However, part of a carpet has scorch marks and he believed that Mr Smith may have been trying to light the fire and became incapacitated.