A father and daughter both tragically died after their house caught alight due to a cigarette thrown into their fireplace.
Paul Scott, otherwise known as Archie, and his daughter Mia, 14, died from inhaling smoke resulting from the fire. While neighbours battled bravely to try and grab Paul and Mia from the house, they were forced to give up after they were overwhelmed by the fire and smoke.
At one point, Paul had managed to make it to the front upstairs window and pleaded with his friends and neighbours to "help me". Residents of Toll Bar Houses, Distington, were awoken in the early hours of Sunday, May 22, when a fierce fire broke out at number nine where the Scotts had lived since 2006, Lancs Live reports.
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Neighbour Keith Barton was the first to arrive on the scene and spotted Archie hanging out of the upstairs front window with a pair of jeans used as a makeshift rope. His body has been badly burned and as neighbours put up a ladder against the window, he could be heard shouting "help me".
An inquest into the deaths of Paul and Mia held on Thursday (December 22) at Cockermouth Coroner's Court heard a statement from Mr Barton in which he recalled the tragic incident. He said: "I went up the ladder, the front upstairs window was open. Archie's head was in the window.
"It was like he was trying to get to the window but the smoke was too bad. I grabbed hold of him under his arms but couldn't get a good grip. He seemed to come to a bit.
"I got him a bit out of the window. I never heard him speak. He did groan a bit. The smoke was so bad I had to come down for air. It felt like forever trying to get him out of the window.
"The smoke was so thick. Someone came over and said you've done as much as you can. Caroline was in disbelief I don't think she could take it in. They were shouting at Archie telling him to jump."
Two people passing by on their way to work stopped at the scene and ran around the back of the house to try and rescue Mia. After climbing onto a single storey extension, they smashed Mia's bedroom window with a brick but were forced to retreat after a massice backdraught caused a series of explosions.
Keith's wife, Christine, who was a good friend of Paul's wife, Caroline, recalled how she tried to save Mia. In a statement, she said: "We ran round the back. One climbed on the single storey roof. I pointed to Mia's window. He was banging but there was no reply.
"He smashed the window with a brick. The smoke bellowed out like nothing I've seen before. I knew that Mia was not going to be able to get out. He asked how old she was I said 14 and he got upset. Caroline was in shock was saying her whole life was in that house."
During the incident, retired police officer Martin Rennie was helping neighbours evacuate their properties. In a statement he said: "I could hear shouting and screams. I saw Caroline standing next to a car and was hysterical. She was screaming and pointing towards her house. There was lots of shouting. It was the worst thing I've seen. My first thought was 'oh s***'.
"I could see a tattoo on Paul's arm. I knew that he was gone. He was a big lad and he was stuck on the window ledge."
Caroline described her husband as a "laugh a minute" who was full of adventure. She revealed that she and Archie had tried for a baby for several years before she became pregnant with Mia.
"She was our world," Caroline said in a statement. In her statement Caroline said: "Archie was born in Tynemouth. He had two younger sisters. Archie was five when he moved to Cumbria. He worked at Woodside Farm for 35 years, he just loved being outside. I had known him through the young farmers and he was best man at my sister's wedding.
"We tried for a few years to have a child and finally we had our daughter in 2007. Mia was our only child. We got married May 2014 at Whitehaven with Mia as our flower girl. Archie started working at Paul Thompson's plant hire in 2017. He loved his truck. He was a laugh a minute. Life was an adventure with him and there was never a dull moment."
An investigation carried out by Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service concluded that the blaze was caused by a cigarette end thrown by Paul Scott into the open fire in the living room. Flammable materials, including a coal bucket and wastepaper, had ignited when embers from the fire floated back into the room.
Post mortems were carried out on both Archie and Mia and concluded they had died from smoke inhalation. The majority of Mia's burns happened after she had died, the report revealed.
Returning a conclusion of accidental death Assistant Coroner Margaret Taylor praised the "heroic attempts" of neighbours and passers-by who tried to save Archie and Mia. She added: "Despite their attempts of neighbours, passers-by and the emergency services Mia and Archie died."
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