A 92-YEAR-OLD retired brick layer died after he was overcome by smoke fumes when his oven switched itself back on after a 40-minute power cut.

An inquest heard that George Willmott may have fallen asleep halfway through cooking his dinner — only to wake up in a cloud of smoke.

Mr Willmott, who lived in a sheltered housing complex in Orchard Court, Whitley, was carried from the flat by firefighters and rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, but he died the next day as a result of smoke inhalation.

The hearing at Reading Civic Centre on Tuesday was told how crews from Whitley Wood fire station were called to the complex at 6.21pm on May 23 after being alerted by the building’s automatic smoke detectors.

After entering the flat, they found Mr Willmott standing in the bathroom, supported by a zimmer frame, and carried him outside on to the lawn where he was given oxygen.

His daughter Terei Slark told the inquest that the pensioner, who lived alone, had poor eyesight caused by glaucoma and that he was “a bit of a shuffler” but said he was mobile and independent while in the flat.

She said the controls on his oven and microwave were labelled with bright orange markers so that he knew what temperature to turn them to.

She added that he occasionally used the hobs for cooking rice puddings as well as sausages, eggs and bacon.

When crews inspected the kitchen later they found a frying pan which had melted and “splayed out” at the sides and a melted spatula on one of the back hobs.

Fire investigation officer Jeremy James said the pan may have contained food or the residue of oil, which would have ignited once it hit 300C.

He added: “I’ve never seen a frying pan actually splay out like that — it completely melted out. It wasn’t a very large fire, but sufficient enough to create quite a lot of smoke.

“However, given time it could’ve developed into a much more significant fire than it ultimately was.”

A post mortem examination found that Mr Willmott died because the smoke he inhaled in the fire exacerbated a long-running heart condition.

Coroner Michael Burgess recorded a verdict of death by accident.