A PENSIONER and her husband died after she left a cigarette on an armchair and went to bed, investigators believe.

Gwendoline Brown, 87, smoked 20 a day and suffered from memory loss, an inquest heard.

She was discovered just yards from the front door and her husband John, 81, in a nearby room, but neither could be saved, Southampton Coroner’s Court was told.

The inquest heard how the couple, married 41 years, were probably asleep as the fire took hold at their flat in Rockall Close, Lordshill, Southampton.

They may have tried to escape the toxic fumes, but had limited mobility and were quickly overcome, the inquest heard.

Daily Echo: Click below to see a video of today's headlines in sixty seconds

Firefighters found Mrs Brown near the front door and Mr Brown on the bedroom floor both unconscious and they were pronounced dead shortly after at Southampton General Hospital at 3.07am on March 30 this year.

They died of smoke inhalation.

The couple, who had five children and 11 grandchildren, had refused to move into sheltered accommodation from their home of ten years and relied on family help.

They had been assessed by Southampton City Council’s housing support team earlier that month and it was Mrs Brown’s emergency pendant that first raised the alarm, the inquest heard.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service investigator group manager Steve Quinn said the fire most likely started in Mrs Brown’s armchair and could have taken 20 minutes to three hours to take hold, but a matter of minutes to become a more serious blaze Mr Quinn said the smoke would have made conditions inside the flat very poor with “almost zero visiblility”.

The inquest heard that the hallway fire detector had worked and may have alerted Mrs Brown, but it might have been wise to have another one in the living room.

Coroner Keith Wiseman recorded a verdict of accidental death and said he would speak to the local authority about this issue.

Paying tribute daughter Glenda Havard, 60, of Coxford Drove, said yesterday: “They were devoted to each other and did everything together.”

Pamela Brown, 81, from Totton, the wife of John’s brother Walter, 82, said: “One couldn’t live without the other anyway.

“It’s a blessing that they did go together in the end.”