Dad and daughter died in huge house fire caused by cigarette as heroic neighbours tried to save them
Caroline Scott should have been getting ready to spend Christmas with her husband Paul and their daughter Mia. But this Christmas will be be her first without the father and daughter who were both killed in a devastating house fire.
An inquest into the deaths of Paul and Mia held on Thursday at Cockermouth Coroner's Court heard a statement from Mr Barton in which he recalled his desperate attempts to pull Archie out. 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.
Two passers-by, who had been on their way to work, stopped at the scene and ran round 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.
Meanwhile, at the front of the house, retired police officer Martin Rennie was helping to evacuate neighbouring properties. He described the scene in a statement 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***'.
"She was our world," Caroline said in a statement. Mia had an infectious personality and adored the family dog Ged who had alerted them to the fire. Ged, a black Labrador, later went missing and couldn't be found.
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