Fatal house fire not treated as suspicious

Emergency services were called to the property on Chestnut Avenue late on Friday evening, July 9, and a man was found inside.

He was taken to hospital to be treated for serious injuries, but died the following day.

The cause of death was established as smoke inhalation and natural causes following a Home Office post mortem examination.

Police and forensic officers at the scene of the house blaze on Chestnut Avenue in Bradwell on July 9 (Image: Mick Howes)

Neighbours described dramatic scenes on the street after they were awoken by "loud noises and flashing lights."

Glenn Turner, 49, tried three times to enter the house but was beaten back by the heat and thick smoke.

When he realised he could not save the resident, known to his neighbours as Joe, he smashed a window to enter the home next door where the 92-year-old man was asleep upstairs, his smoke alarms sounding and his bedroom rapidly filling with smoke.

He unlocked the door from the inside and took the man to safety.

The scene of the fatal house blaze on Chestnut Avenue in Bradwell on July 9 (Image: Mick Howes)

"I have never seen anything like it before," he said.

Mr Turner suffered cuts and scratches and was taken to hospital with smoke inhalation.