A pensioner who died after a blaze in her flat broke fire alarms with a broom so she could smoke indoors.

Lillian Marchant, 78, a heavy smoker, suffered severe burns after she fell asleep and a cigarette set fire to her chair. She later died in hospital.

An inquest heard that smoke detectors were fitted in the flat in Tillstone Street, Brighton, but she had knocked them off with a broom.

Her neighbours and carers had told her not to smoke but she continued despite their warnings.

She went into hospital after a fall last August and later into a rest home for rehabilitation.

Miss Marchant, who was mainly confined to a chair, was sent home with a care package in January.

Carers visited her four times a day and had arranged for her flat to be cleaned and new equipment to be installed before she was allowed home.

However, she refused to have new smoke detectors fitted even though they would almost certainly have saved her life.

Fire crews were called to Miss Marchant's flat on March 10, after neighbours heard her shouts for help and saw smoke.

Firefighters pulled her from the flat but she later died in a specialist burns unit at East Grinstead from her injuries.

Richard Fowler, an East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service investigator, told the Brighton hearing: “There would have been time to rescue her before she was seriously injured if we had received an early call because smoke detectors were present.

“We can fit detectors free of charge but we need either to be invited into someone's home or receive a referral to be able to do so.

“There are very few places that people can smoke these days but they can do so in their own homes.

“If they do not want us to fit an alarm there is nothing we can do because we do not have the authority.”

He said the fire service was working with Brighton and Hove City Council and other agencies to increase the installation of smoke detectors.

He added that the fire service's Who Cares programme provides training for carers on fire safety.

As part of the scheme carers can obtain referrals for fire safety officers to make home safety visits to the elderly and vulnerable to fit alarms.

Veronica Hamilton-Deeley, coroner for Brighton and Hove, said she would write to the city council.

She said: “There are many times when elderly people go into hospital and can't come home unless there is a care package in place.

“Lots of alterations to their homes have to be made and it would be useful to have smoke detectors on a check list of the things needed before they can return home.”

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.