The cottage at Holme Hale where two elderly women died on Sunday in a fire.

A tragic picture was last night emerging of the elderly women who died in a fire at their home.

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The women, named locally as Peggy Rowland and Olive Cornish, were in their late 80s and mid-90s and are believed to have been sisters.

Despite the best efforts of firefighters, they both died at the scene after fire broke out in the roof of their secluded cottage in Lower Road, Holme Hale, near Swaffham, just before 3.30pm on Sunday.

Shocked neighbours said the pensioners were reclusive and it is not known how long the cottage had smouldered before the alarm was raised.

Investigations into the cause of the blaze were hampered yesterday by serious structural damage to the rear of the house, which is surrounded by trees. The urban search and rescue team were later called in to shore up the property and investigators are expected to recommence work this morning.

Norfolk Fire Service is urging older people in particular to take care after figures showed that all the county’s fatal house fires in the past four years had involved people over 60.

One neighbour said he had not known anything was wrong at the cottage until about 3.30pm and by the time he saw the flames, it was too late.

“I don’t know who called the fire service,” he said. “At first, you couldn’t see the house was on fire except for the smoke coming through the tiles.

“The ladies never went out. I think the older lady was bed-bound and had been in hospital that day, so they didn’t know if she was inside.”

Another neighbour said the women “kept to themselves” and he had seen them only once in the last four years.

“I know everybody else in the road, but they were incredibly reclusive,” he said. “They lived their whole life in that house. One can only guess what happened. It’s a terrible story and we are all very shocked and upset.”

The Rev Stephen Thorp, rector of St Andrew’s Church in the village, said: “It’s a terribly sad situation. We are always devastated when there’s a loss of life of this sort.”

Norfolk Police said the fire was not being treated as suspicious.