A friend of a distraught woman who lost her husband and daughter, aged 14, in a devastating house fire has said that her "whole life" was in that building, an inquest heard.
Caroline Scott's husband Paul was seen trying to get out of the house in Distington but was overwhelmed by smoke while attempts to rescue teenage daughter Mia also failed due to the intensity of the fire, reported LancsLive.
Neighbours battled desperately to grab Paul (known as Archie) and Mia as their house burned but they were forced to give up after the billowing smoke and fierce flames overwhelmed them.
Caroline had escaped the building, while Archie had managed to make it to a front upstairs window and pleaded "help me" as friends and neighbours urged him to jump in the early hours of May 22.
Neighbour Keith Barton saw Archie, badly burned, hanging out of the upstairs front window with a pair of jeans used as a makeshift rope.
At an inquest at Cockermouth Coroner's Court, on Thursday, Mr Barton 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 passers-by ran around the back of the house to try and rescue Mia. They climbed up onto a single storey extension and smashed Mia's bedroom window with a brick but were forced to retreat after a massive backdraught caused a series of explosions.
Keith's wife Christine, who is Caroline's best friend, recalled their attempts to save Mia. 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."
Meanwhile, at the front of the house, retired police officer Martin Rennie described the scene as "the worst thing I've ever seen".
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 to the inquest as a "laugh a minute" who was full of adventure.
"She was our world," Caroline said of Mia who adored the family dog Ged. The labrador had alerted them of the fire but later went missing and couldn't be found.
She continued: "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."
A fire investigation carried out by Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service concluded that the blaze had been caused by Paul Scott throwing a cigarette end 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."
