A BEDRIDDEN woman died when her cigarette sparked a fire that ripped through her York home, an inquest heard.

The husband of 61-year-old Linda Winzar said he would regret his decision to let his wife smoke unsupervised for the rest of his life.

Mrs Winzar, a retired credit controller who had been left disabled by a series of strokes, died in the blaze at the couple’s semi-detached home in Whitethorn Close, Huntington, on January 6 last year.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, York coroner Donald Coverdale issued a warning about the perils of smoking in bed.

He said: “What has occurred is a domestic accident of the most awful kind. The facts speak for themselves. Everybody needs to recognise that this scenario is the worst and most dreadful scenario that can occur following smoking in bed and it should be borne in mind by all those who smoke cigarettes.”

Mrs Winzar’s husband, Howard, told the inquest how he initially banned his wife from smoking unsupervised when she came home from hospital in 2007.

He said: “I made every attempt to persuade her to give up smoking all together, but unfortunately it was the passion of her life.

“She did improve by the beginning of 2008 and she persuaded me to allow her to have her cigarettes unsupervised. It’s a decision that I will regret for the rest of my life.”

He said she smoked about 15 cigarettes a day and he always left a packet of cigarettes and a lighter on her bedside cabinet before leaving for work at Queen Elizabeth Barracks, in Strensall.

Mr Winzar, 60, also revealed how a couple of months before her death, his wife’s bedding had caught fire while she was lighting a cigarette.

In a statement read out at the inquest, he said: “I was in the kitchen at the time. I looked towards the bed and saw flames from the blanket on the bed. I threw it on the floor and jumped on it.

“I noticed a burnt tissue next to it and assumed this had caught fire. I told Linda she must be more careful in future.”

The inquest heard how Mrs Winzar’s next door neighbour had raised the alarm at about 4.40pm on January 6 last year after hearing banging from inside her home.

In a statement read out by the coroner, Andrew Millward said he went outside and saw thick black smoke through a downstairs window.

He said he used a hammer and crowbar to break into a security box beside the front door that contained a key, but received instructions over the phone from the fire brigade’s control room operator not to enter the building.

Mr Coverdale said Mrs Winzar died from burns and mild smoke inhalation.