A TERMINALLY ill cancer patient was killed in his own bed after his iPhone set alight when it overheated while charging, an inquest heard.

Marek Kruger was lying asleep when the mobile's battery sparked a fire which burned more than 60 per cent of his body after he left on charge under the covers.

The 53-year-old Polish born man was unable to move himself from the specialist hospital bed installed in his second-floor flat after he lost the movement in the right side of his body following a brain tumour.

An inquest heard how he later died of the injuries sustained by the "slow and smouldering" fire which engulfed him and a portion of the bed.

His wife told assistant coroner Ravi Sidhu that his phone acted as a lifeline for the bed-bound father-of-two and he would often have it stored under the covers or pillow while he slept.

Iryna Kruger, said: "He used to put the phone and wallet just under the pillow because he wanted to have his phone next to him.

"He felt unsafe sometimes when the girls [his carers] had not been around and I was at work."

Jonathan Fuguet, a consultant scientific adviser, said at the inquest at Reading Town Hall on Wednesday the phone being covered while on charge is what caused it to burst into flames.

He said: "The heat generated by the phone while charging could not dissipate because of the insulation - almost like putting it into a fire but much, much slower."

He added the cause of the fire was very isolated and concentrated and he noted parts of the iPhone 5's copper battery - with a melting temperature of 1,084°c - had disintegrated.

No faults were found in either the phone or the charger and Mr Fuguet pointed to Apple's advice that devices be kept below 35°c and are not covered while charging.

His son Przemyslaw had been upstairs at a friends flat in the same building in Chatham Place when they first smelled burning plastic at around 12.45am and came down to find fire crews already on scene after neighbours raised the alarm.

When he opened the door firefighters rushed in to find Marek alight on the bed where they doused him with a wet towel found in the bathroom.

In a fire investigation report for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service Eduardo Cardoso added: "Crews initially believed him to be deceased and left him in situ.

"Two or three minutes later they believed they saw signs of breathing when he was extricated and CPR engaged until the ambulance arrived."

Paramedics took over minutes later but Marek was declared dead at the scene at 1.14am on August 9.

In a post-mortem examination report Dr Fawaz Musa said the cause of death was smoke inhalation adding the burns on around 64 per cent of his body would have also been unsurvivable.

Mr Sidhu recorded a narrative verdict taking into account the course of events.

He said: "I am persuaded that what we have essentially got here is that in all likelihoods had that iPhone been charged in an environment where the heat could have been dissipated as it charged, we would not have to be here.

"The likely cause was the battery overheating in circumstances where it had been covered and heat was retained to a degree where it was heating up more than it was able to cool.

"That in turn caused other material to be ignited which in turn caused fumes to be ejected.

"Regrettably Mr Kruger was in close proximity to those fumes in a way that he could not extricate himself because of his medical condition."