A woman died in bed as her two young sons bravely attempted to save her from a fire that had broken out upstairs at their home in Manorbier, an inquest in Milford Haven heard last week.

The blaze on October 16, 2007, at the semi-detached home of Maria Sutton, of 43 Dewing Avenue, Manorbier, saw the 37-year-old mother of four, die as a result of injuries sustained in the fire and from inhalation of fumes and gases.

Her two sons who lived with her, 13-year-old Daniel and 10-year-old Dylan, were eventually led to safety by neighbour Kevin Roberts, who was alerted to the fire shortly after midnight.

Mr. Roberts woke up firstly to investigate what he thought was a car alarm going off down the road, but after hearing the shattering of glass and a scream, he realised that something was happening at the property directly next door to his.

"I noticed the flames coming out of the roof and shouted to my partner to phone the fire brigade," Mr. Roberts told Pembrokeshire coroner Michael Howells at the inquest.

"I put on my dressing gown, ran to the house and tried the door, but it was locked, so I started hammering on it to try and shatter the pane of glass. I could hear the boys on the landing screaming and eventually they came down and opened the door.

"I got them outside and left them on the grass while I went into the house, which was in darkness downstairs," he continued.

Mr. Roberts could see the light from the fire at the top of the stairs and began shouting for Mrs. Sutton, who her sons had said was upstairs.

"The noise from the fire was horrendous. All that I could see, though, was a wall of flames in front of me; I was looking for a gap, but there wasn't one.

"There were now bits falling from the house and I thought I had better move the boys who were outside, in case they were in danger, so I took them to another neighbour.

"I went back again, I don't know why, I knew there was nothing I could do," said Mr. Roberts.

Coroner's officer for Dyfed Powys Police's Pembrokeshire division, Jeremy Davies, told the inquest that the majority of the fire had been confined to the attic space.

He said that Mrs. Sutton was known to smoke up to 25 cigarettes a day and often smoked in bed.

Coroner Mr. Howells read out a statement from the eldest son, Daniel, who had been the only eye witness to what had happened.

Daniel said that his mother had been drinking some wine that evening with a friend and believed that she was a bit tipsy.

After she had gone to bed, Daniel, whose bedroom along with brother Dylan's was below where their mother slept, said that he had heard a crackling sound which sounded like wood on fire.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he could see the glow of the fire and as he ran up he saw the whole of his mother's room ablaze.

After waking up his brother, he went to get some water to throw on the fire, but said that it was spreading; then he heard Mr. Roberts knocking downstairs.

Byron Jones, of the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, who was part of the team that carried out the investigation into the fire, said that this was centred around the attic area of the house which had been converted into a bedroom for Mrs. Sutton.

He believed that the most probable cause of the fire would have been a lit cigarette dropping onto the bed and igniting the bed clothes, which would have developed rapidly.

In recording a verdict that Mrs. Sutton had died as result of asphyxiation from a product of the combustion of the fire, Coroner Mr. Howells said that a combination of medication and alcohol had probably caused her to be drowsy when having a cigarette in bed.

"Smoking in bed is dangerous, people simply shouldn't do it," said Mr. Howells.