An unextinguished cigarette butt that was discarded in the lounge room of a Huonville house, causing furniture to ignite, was “most likely” the reason behind a woman’s death, a coroner has revealed.
Leanne Margaret Humphries, aged 55, was living alone when her Sale Street unit went up in flames while she was inside on January 14, 2022.
In his newly published findings, Coroner Simon Cooper said Humphries was a regular drinker of alcohol and a heavy smoker who often smoked inside and “had a tendency to use any surface or nearby container to extinguish her cigarettes”.
He said Humphries suffered from schizophrenia, epilepsy, type II diabetes and atrial fibrillation and had been left “physically disabled … [and unable to] mobilise without assistance” following a stroke in 2017.
“At 1:57pm a 000 call was made advising that Ms Humphries’ unit was on fire. Fire service crews arrived on the scene at 2:07pm and quickly brought the fire under control,” Cooper said.
“Ms Humphries’ body was found, severely blackened, near the front door of the unit.”
A later autopsy showed “clear evidence of smoke inhalation and pink colouration of the tissue consistent with carbon monoxide exposure”, as well as “alcohol and various prescription drugs”, including a “greater than therapeutic amount” of Tapentadol.
“Amitriptyline in therapeutic qualities was also identified. Alcohol and those drugs combined would have caused sedation,” Cooper said.
A fire investigator determined that the blaze had “a single area of origin … in the lounge room on upholstered furniture” and also discovered “numerous discarded cigarette butts in the area where the fire originated”, along with two smoke alarms that both found to be in “proper working order”.
“The significance of this is that no witnesses to the fire, including close neighbours, could recall hearing any smoke alarms. Nonetheless, I am satisfied that appropriately operated smoke alarms were installed in the unit at the time,” Cooper said.
“There are no suspicious circumstances … I am satisfied that she died of smoke inhalation … I am satisfied on the evidence that her physical disability and probable sedation as a result of the consumption of alcohol and the ingestion of various prescription drugs meant she was slow to react to the fire and thus unable to save herself.”
“I do not consider anything could have been done to save Ms Humphries.”
