A 48-YEAR-old man celebrating Christmas night on his own died after a candle started a fire as he slept.

But an inquest heard that Paul Luckham had disconnected two smoke detectors at his terraced village home in Bere Alston.

The hearing was told he was alive when the blaze started in the living room but he died from inhaling smoke and toxic gases.

The coroner said unemployed Mr Luckham was a chronic alcoholic and this affected his ability to escape the fire.

Toxicology results showed he was more than twice the legal drink drive limit when he died.

Local shopworker Stacey Pavely smelled smoke coming from the house at 6.30am as she went to her store on Boxing Day morning in Fore Street.

She tried to rouse Mr Luckham, whose wife had left on Christmas morning to be with her mother.

Miss Pavely alerted the fire service and two local retained firefighters from the village raced to the scene.

They discovered his naked body wrapped in a duvet on the floor of his first floor bedroom. He was pronounced dead soon afterwards on hospital.

Fire investigator Andrew Justice from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service told the Barnstaple hearing that the fire started accidentally in a coffee table and sofa in what he called a ‘slow smouldering’ blaze.

He said: ‘The likely cause of the fire was either by a lit candle or discarded smoking material, but the candle was more likely. In my opinion it was an accidental fire.”

Smoker Mr Luckham had a habit of lighting his roll up cigarettes using a lit candle or tea light.

But Mr Justice said two smoke detectors located in the living room and the first floor hallway had had their heads removed which meant they could not operate as designed.

He said had the detectors been working properly Mr Luckham’s death ‘would have been prevented’.

The inquest heard there was no physical evidence to say what started the fire but a lit candle which was on the table surrounded by Christmas cards and smoking papers was the most likely cause.

The Greater Devon coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland warned: ‘Having smoke detectors in your house is of no value if you render them inoperative.’

She urged home owners to make sure their smoke detectors were in a working condition.

The inquest heard Mr Luckham had a chronic alcohol problem, consuming 18 cans of cider a day.

He had tried to reduce his consumption but was still drinking some cans and up to two bottles of wine a night.

The coroner said that his alcoholism would have impaired his efforts to get out of the fire or to think properly.

She concluded an accidental death verdict.

She said she was satisfied that Mr Luckham may have used tea lights or a candle and the fire started in the coffee table in the living room overnight from Christmas night to Boxing Day morning.

She said: ‘The smoke detectors had been removed and alcohol was a factor. On the balance of probabilities his death was an accident.’

Afterwards fire investigator Justice urged vulnerable people like the elderly or single parents to ask the brigade for a free home service fire check.